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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BattlARTS History #4 - November + December 1996

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12/25

Tag Tournament Comm 

 11/27
Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka vs. Minoru Tanaka & Naohiro Hoshikawa
This was pretty much just clips, which is a bit regrettable because it looked like good stuff. Even Tanaka and Hoshikawa were bringing it in some good looking shootstyle exchanges and the crowd was excited. Ishikawa did a thing where he stopped an attempted takedown, crossfaced Tanaka to bring him up and then just slapped him in the face. Always dig little evil things like that.

Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono vs. Carl Malenko & Viktor Krüger
Also just a clip pretty much from what seemed like a good matchup. Krüger seemed to have an idea of what to do i.e. just trying to be Vader and Carl was insanely slick on the mat as always.

11/28
Minoru Tanaka & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. TAKA Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki
We only get like 40 seconds of this and what was shown wasn't really shootstyle, which is kinda to be expected from them. Tanaka and TAKA reprised the stuff they did in their singles matches all year so I guess there was nothing surprising here.

Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono
Regrettably there was also only about 3 minutes of this : ( Looked to be really good stuff in the same vein as their big match the previous month, with Ikeda and Ono beating the hell out of their opponents and Otsuka hitting some big suplexes.

11/30
TAKA Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki vs. Viktor Krüger & Carl Malenko
Krüger is acting invincible here, but Funaki and TAKA can figure out ways to hurt him, so it's fun. Besides that Krüger is hitting powermoves and clubbing people, thoug he's not quite hitting the Vader-in-UWFi-groove that he needs to be really good. But he's nice enough to even catch TAKAs spaceman dive, allowing Funaki to get a sneaky win with a nifty shootstyle figure 4.

Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono vs. Minoru Tanaka & Naohiro Hoshikawa
Another match I would've liked to see in full, simply because Team Taco are awesome. They were beating the shit out of Hoshikawa and Tanaka here and it kind of brought out their inner asskicker in turn. A comp tape with matches from a tournament clipping so much feels criminal.

12/3
Viktor Krüger & Carl Malenko vs. Minoru Tanaka & Naohiro Hoshikawa
More of invincible Krüger. We don't get much of this but Krüger absolutely destroys Hoshikawa with a sick ass powerbomb here. He sure wasn't holding back with those.

TAKA Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka
We get pretty much the finish of this with Kai En Tai being ratboys and using double teams to their advantage to get a win over the superior shooters.

12/4
Viktor Krüger & Carl Malenko vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka
Thankfully, this also aired on Champ Forum so we get this in full. Krüger continues to be a fun clumsy shootstyle monster and Carl was just a machine here. Lots of matwork between Carl and Yuki and Alexander, as they tried to isolate him, and it was really good slick stuff. Ishikawa also decided to slap the shit out of Krüger which lead to some fun aggression although Krügers striking is not exactly refined. I can totally get behind Viktor and Carl as a team with Carl bringing the wrestling and Krüger just tagging in to powerbomb people to death.

Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono vs. TAKA Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki - Fun
Fun tag that had a chaotic beginning with Ono & Ikeda immediately going to their brawling and Funaki hitting a surprise dive before getting literally kicked off the stage. Kai En Tai pretty much stuck to submissions here, and while they knew how to do that stuff I thought that segment went a little long as they just kept slapping submissions on Ikeda. We do get some really fun matwork from Ono, and a great hot tag from where he would try to KO people with flying knees to the face. I would've liked to see Team Taco kick ass a bit more but it was a fun match.

Finals: Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono vs. Viktor Krüger & Carl Malenko - Fun
Krüger decided to try some shootstyle here, and your mileage may vary on how good exactly that was. It's clear he's very limited and the likes of Ono would literally grapple circles around him if only he wasn't such a big oaf. It's an amusing oddity but not exactly great wrestling (yet). Thankfully Carl was also in the match to salvage things with some awesome matwork. He was going all out with his barefooted grappling here and it was great to see Ikeda and Ono trying to avoid his signature submissions. The finish involved Krüger and while there was still some slight awkwardness he took some punishment and in turn laid in some clubbing blows of his own and that big powerbomb, proving he was at least there in spirit.


12/25
Kazumasa Fujimoto vs Michiya Chiba
No idea who these guys are. They both look like wrestlers - with one guy rocking a Bret Hart colour scheme and the worlds ugliest bowl cut + ponytail combo, and the other looking like Katsumi Usudas skinny younger brother. They grapple for a minute, one guy taps out to an armbar, and they were never seen again.

Satoshi Yoneyama vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa
We JIP right to them trying some irish whips and blowing things really awkwardly. They aren't very good yet, but Yoneyama has nice kicks, and Hoshikawa hits a cool oddball jumping DDT into a facelock. I'm a sucker for odd combinations like that you really only get in this kinda hybrid shootstyle settings or amateur-pro wrestling. The finish was kinda cool with Hoshikawa catching a rolling kick and just pulling back on the leg for the tap. But it's still probably for the better they only showed about 4 minutes of this.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Minoru Tanaka
Minoru Tanaka brought the fight here. Made me think he could've had a pretty great career if he wasn't relegated to being the shootstyle highspot guy so much. He was a lot more aggressive than usual here, and not fooling around on the mat. In fairness, he was facing Yuki Ishikawa. There was some super gritty face punching and skull cracking headbutting going on. At one point Tanaka stopped an attempted takedown from Ishikawa with a stomp and felt not far off from an Ishikawa/Ikeda match. Tanaka was really cracking Ishikawa towards the end too with some big bombs, and he still looked slick the way he would lock in a leglock from a suplex etc. His ultra tight triangle choke was also a highlight. Ishikawa ended up winning with a surprise submission and I thought it could've used a bit more from him, though his desperation arm trap suplex was pretty great. Still pretty fucking gnarly action for a midcard match here.

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

 This was the good BattlARTS tag action that your brain craves. Ikeda and Ono fighting each other was pretty sick, as they really seemed out for blood. The other two were a bit tepid early, but started bringing it more as the match progressed. Especially liked Otsuka sneaking up on Usuda from behind as he was busy with Ikeda, and dumping him right on his head with a cheap suplex. The match would break out into a brawl a few times but mostly stay in the ring. There's a great Ikeda/Usuda exchange, and Ono was a real fucker trying to kick peoples skulls in. I would've liked Otsuka to maybe play a bigger role at the end but it suited the 'Anything can happen' vibe they were going for. 

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Complete Takeshi Ono 

Shinya Hashimoto in ZERO1

   

Shinya Hashimoto vs Hirotaka Yokoi, Z1 6/5/2003

This was pretty freaking awesome. It’s Hashimoto vs an aggressive hard hitting shooter in a Korakuen Hall main event, so that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise… still, this a gem. Opening establishes the story of the match nicely as Yokoi came at Hashimoto with a barrage of wild punches but get knocked back by a karate chop. Hashimoto was a total killer here, basically every single thing he did was awesome. Cutting through Yokoi with extremely well timed strikes, trying to break his leg with punches, catching him with a Fujiwaraish leg hook… really had the feel of a wily veteran putting a faster younger fighter through the wringer using experience. So Hashimoto is not just a monster, he is an intelligent monster. Even basic things like a kneedrop looked insanely violent. Yokoi was swinging his fists fast and hard at Hash but kept getting caught by Hashimotos counter kicks and occasionally a shoot heabdutt to the face. At the same time, it seemed Yokoi could beat Hashimoto anytime if he just punched him hard enough or locked in a submission. As such the whole match was intense. Another chapter in the book of Why Shinya Hashimoto is the Greatest Wrestler of All Time.

Shinya Hashimoto & Kohei Sato vs Katsuhiko Ogasawara & Akio Kobayashi, Z1 3/27/2003

Fuck yeah Pro Wrestling vs Karate! Ogasawara breaks a baseball bat with a spin kick before the match to establish dominance. This is really the dream match of every 8 year old kid who loves pro wrestling and karate (now you can guess what I was like at 8). Just 4 men leveling gritty beatdowns on each other for 13 minutes with hardly a breather. The first Hashimoto vs Ogasawara exchange is so awesome as you really get the feeling that Ogasawara was pushing Hashimoto to break out faster and more agile strikes than he usually does. It’s rare Hashimoto faces someone who matches him when it comes to killer strikes but fuck Ogasawara was destroying people here. He looked insanely precise and killer here just stabbing through people with his axe kicks and piercing gut punches. And Hashimoto would always time his strikes and put people down with a big swing. Kobayashi feels very sleazy with his oily hair and colour mismatched taped hands. You look at him and you immediately want to see Hashimoto stomping his guts out and and that’s pretty much what happens. Kohei Sato is kind of the red headed step child here – he’s outmatched against the striking expert. When Hashimoto tags him in, Sato would gleefully take the chance to lay some hard kicks into an exposed Ogasawara. Later we see him going for a running move only to crotch himself in the ropes like a goof ball. One big Ogasawara punch to the gut sent Kohei crawling to the floor clutching himself like he just got his intestines rearranged. Though to his credit Sato fights hard dropping karatekas with some hard suplexes that looked like they had minimal cooperation. It all builds to Ogasawara taking a huge beatdown as Hashimoto just decides to punch him in the face until he starts bleeding. That is actually what happens – Hashimoto nails his signature double stomp, landing on Ogasawara like a fat cartoon dog would land on Tom from Tom & Jerry, then taking a look at Ogasawara and deciding he wants this old man to bleed, and a couple measured knuckle punches to Ogasawaras face later he is indeed covered in blood. The finish is Sato putting the pressure on a seemingly dead Ogasawara only to get knocked out by a lucky hit like the goofball that he is and then crawling all over the referee in confusion. It’s a sudden ending but it makes sense given the build, Ogasawara can just KO anyone with one precise blow. I would’ve hoped this would set up some kind of epic Hashimoto/Ogasawara bloodfeud but instead they only tagged together for the rest of the year because japanese wrestling is like that. I wrote a lot of words about this one but to sum it up they hit each other with lots of really hard punches and kicks and it was great.

Shinya Hashimoto vs Shinjiro Otani, Z1 12/24/2003

I don’t think I’ve seen this match before, and it’s not something that’s brought up much, which is a bit odd because it’s two of the greatest Japanese wrestlers stiffing the daylights out of each other in a big match. Undoubtedly the action here was simplistic, but rather great. These guys really know how to get the most out of everything. During the opening grappling, which was classic New Japan style, simple but believable, they really made basic things like going for an armbar feel meaningful and putting some grit and struggle into it. Of course, Hashimoto is this really towering presence and everyone is thinking if Otani can somehow overcome the king. Everybody knows Otani will probably not tap out to a kimura from Hashimoto 3 minutes into the match but just the way Hashimoto would really crank would let everyone know that he was putting Otani in trouble. Otani knows this so he goes and slaps the shit out of Hashimoto. They stiff the hell out of each other, spirited Otani gets the advantage, he facewashes Hashimoto, and to top it off puts a kimura on Hashimoto for some nice mirroring. Hashimoto would in turn increase the viciousness again, kicking Otani all over the ring, until Otani is the one crumbled in the corner. Otani stopping Hashimotos beastly onslaught with a messy headbutt to the shoulder is so great because it’s simple, believable and Hashimotos selling immediately lets you know that he’s in trouble. Not just because he’s in pain and screaming, but also because he stops using the arm and instead opts for his spinning legsweep in a great spot. This is why Hashimotos just the fucking best, whole match was done in a fairly simple fashion but just oozing with aura and everything meaning something. I could see some people being unhappy with the finish but I thought it was just fine since I am tired of 2.9 ending runs anyways. In a way that would have gone against the story they were telling. Tall that and they absolutely stiffed the daylights out of each other, goodness gracious.

Shinya Hashimoto vs Alexander Otsuka, Z1 7/13/2001

This was kinda like the pro wrestling version of those PRIDE fights with an insane size mismatch. We don’t really think of Otsuka as ‘small’ because usually he works like he’s such a beast, but he does look quite small next to Hashimoto here. This is close to a squash but it’s memorable. Basically Otsuka tries to get something in on Hashimoto and just gets mauled. Hashimoto would shrug off Otsukas early attempts at takedowns and then proceed to try and pulverize him with vicious kicks. Just destroying his shoulders and arms with bone breaking kicks and karate chops. Otsuka looks really tough not backing down against the beast and he gets a few cool hope spots but is quickly destroyed. Highlight was clearly Hashimotos gritty crowbar shoulderblock that blew Otsuka away, and the finishing submission which looked like a killing. Still you want it to be a bit more epic considering it’s Hashimoto vs Alexander freaking Otsuka but sometimes you can’t have it all.

BattlARTS History #1: January - April 1996

 1/13/1996

(actually, this was NOT the offical BattlARTS debut. It was a produce show run by a booking agency, they just decided to let the BattlARTS guys center stage, technically speaking. But for all intents and purposes it's the BattlARTS debut show. 

Minoru Tanaka vs. Satoshi Yoneyama (BattlARTS 1/13/1996)

BattlARTS begins. And the world would never be the same! Unfortunately, the Champ Forum broadcast does not show us the amazing sounding Pequeno Guerrero vs Takashi Okamura opening match. Yone has a shaven head and is wearing some funky looking martial arts pants Basically Yoneyama is useless on the mat so Tanaka uses him as a punching bag and dumps him with impressive suplexes. Normally I dread watching Tanaka but he he looked like a prick here and really roughed up Yoneyama with brutal knees and shotais, so that was refreshing. Even spiking him on his head with a nasty half-hooked Package Piledriver. Yoneyama gets pretty fired up flurry hitting his abisegiri which is always cool but is soon put to pasture. Short, violent, kind of out of nowhere, a fitting beginning to the promotion.


 Takeshi Ono vs. Alexander Otsuka, BattlARTS 1/13

I already watched this for my Takeshi Ono project and let me tell you, it holds up all the way as a fucking awesome 8 minute undercard shootstyle war. Ono is relentless trying to tap out Otsuka and occasionally trying to kick his brains in, and the both absolutely nuke each other with some suplexes. Just go watch this if you haven't, and even if you have seen it watch it again. Should point out that Onos heel hook reversal after almost getting killed by a suplex was ridiculously sick and like something out of an epic MMA fight.


Hisakatsu Oya & Ricky Fuji vs Koji Nakagawa & Tetsuhiro Kuroda, 1/13

This sleazebag FMW tag is a bit of an odd addition to a BattlARTS card, but that's part of the BattlARTS charm, you always get some odd extras. This actually looks like it would've been worth seeing in full because there was some violence, Nakagawa was bleeding, Kuroda ate a tiger driver on the floor and Oya is always killing people with his insane backdrop suplex. You know it was a wild era when Shawn Michaels worshipper Ricky Fuji was uncorking really hard offense, like crowning Nakagawa with a massive brainbuster. Nakagawas Bret Hart worshipping babyface act seemed on point. Alas they only showed 3 minutes of this but it's 3 minutes worth seeing. There was also a Michinoku Pro tag on this card and that's just annoying that we don't have that.

Yuki Ishikawa & Shoichi Funaki vs Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda, BattlARTS 1/13/1996

The first BattlARTS event concludes with a big tag. BattlARTS tags are one of the greatest inventions of wrestling as you basically always get just 4 guys in a fight to the death, and they already had all the ingredients down here. Ishikawa and Ikeda went out of their way here to establish their rivalry, just absolutely cracking each other with every shot. Kicks to the ribs, stomps drawing hardway blood, bare knuckle punches, there's no comparing these two. Usuda wasn't far behind as he was trying to kick peoples heads off. Besides the violence there was a ton of great matwork and suplexes here. Really great competitive shootstyle with lots of ankle spraining leg locks. Dug Funaki as a guy with limited options just trying to twist peoples legs off. Usuda looked like a killer, and he is also really great at putting submissions over as dangerous. Ikeda and Ishikawa also did some great wrestling against each other, though by the end you had a pissed off Ishikawa trying to stump a mudhole in Ikeda and drawing hardway blood, and Ikeda trying to pulverize people with spin kicks. The insertion of Funakis pro-style moves worked and made for a unique touch that would become the defining characteristic of BattlARTS that set it apart from other wrestling. Not much more needs to be said, just really raw pro wrestling that rules and made you want to see more.

4/6/1996

Takeshi Ono vs. Yuki Ishikawa, BattlARTS 4/6/1996 - FUN

This is from that weird psychedelic background studio TV show they ran. This was these guys going at each other for 5 minutes, and these two are going to give you something good when given 5 minutes. Mostly Ono being pesky, trying to outgrapple Ishikawa and absorbing his size advantage. Though Ono does connect with a brutal face kick at one point because he is Ono. Sick finish where Ishikawa reverses an Ono leg lock and just tries to rip his foot off. Good stuff but gee, 2 or 3 minutes more of this couldn‘t have hurt. 

Carl Malenko vs Satoshi Yoneyama, 4/6

Yoneyama continues to have a hard time. He's tall but he doesn't have much grappling, so Carl is very much like an anaconda playing with its food here, twirling him around and locking in carny full nelson holds and what not. Yoneyama does get a sleeper that forces Carl to the ropes and immediately goes for his koppu kick rushing, but Carl is not impressed and after some more scrambling Yoneyama is toast. I always enjoy watching Carl tear people apart and the finish was great with Carl locking in a full nelson STF and then just choking him out.

Katsumi Usuda vs Alexander Otsuka, 4/6

Good solid shootstyle grappling here as you expect. Otsuka is always great to watch as he will grapple the fuck out of someone and bust out crazy suplexes. That was the case here too as Otsuka hit Usuda with a super iconic deadlift German with a great camera angle. Usuda fired back with some sick kicks and choking out Otsuka in nasty fashion. These two would have bigger matches later in their career but this was a good appetizer and you can tell everyone in this company was showcasing their own unique style.

Daisuke Ikeda vs Shoichi Funaki, 4/6

Funaki is outgunned here, but he does one hell of a job trying to get a submission. This may have been among Funakis best performances as he looked great doing slick shootstyle matwork, busting out nifty counters and trying to twist Ikedas legs off. Ikeda found himself frustrated and then already going to his vicious prick ways trying to scrub Funakis face off the bone with vicious grinding forearms etc. Great finish as Funaki goes for the leg attack to often and Ikedas came down on him like the hammer of destiny and then Fight for Your Right to Party blares. 

4/13+4/14/1996

Yuki Ishikawa vs Carl Greco, 4/13

This was apparently from the first 'official' BattlARTS show as everything before was considered 'pre-debut'. A bit regretful that this is the only match we get from that card because everything else also looked good. Regardless of that this is good stuff. These two have been consistent rivals beginning in PWFG and now continueing that through BattlARTS up until their 2008 masterpiece. They pretty much never disappoint and this is another banger match that delivers. Carl always works in pushing people through the limit and producing some killer matwork. He was also quite aggressive really rattling Yuki with face kicks. Maybe Yuki could've gone a bit more all out in this one but in the end he was overwhelmed. Intense shootstyle main event with a sick finish.

TAKA Michinoku vs Minoru Tanaka, 4/14

These two also fought each other many maaany times. It's always a good match up but from my memory it has never produced something blowaway great, maybe that'll change with this grand rewatch. This is quite good stuff, there is lots of slick competitive feeling matwork with both guys fighting hard for armbars and leglocks. Maybe it lacks variety a bit but their fighting was definitely convincing. No junior stuff here, Tanaka just unloads on TAKA with nasty kicks, suplexes and a big piledriver. TAKA annoys me a bit by trying to do some hockey no selling though it's quickly shut down. He gets on my good side catching a kick from Tanaka and turning it into a nifty shootstyle Michinoku Driver II. He goes for another but Tanaka reverses it into a leglock for a nifty finish. Pretty good, Tanaka was putting more violence in his kicks than I remember from other matches, and it  does not overstay it's welcome at 10 minutes length.

Yuki Ishikawa & Katsumi Usuda vs Carl Malenko & Daisuke Ikeda, 4/14

Big fan of this tag which is full of banger matchups. Ikeda and Ishikawa avoided each other early on, so we get more focussed shootstyle action which was quite great, especially when Carl was involved as he's such a relentless grappler. Also a big fan of Usuda who's really good as someone constantly trying to finish opponents either with his kicks or straightforward submissions. Ikeda started to turn up the violence later by being a vicious prick and we get a pretty intense explosion between him and Ishikawa. Highlight was probably Ishikawa stomping the crap out of Ikeda, Steve Austin style, or his northern lights suplex into some pretty brutal ground and pound. Ishikawa eyeing Ikeda only to get blasted by same brutal kicks from Carl to his face may be quintessential BattlARTS. Finish was pretty intense as guys were going for the kill, and while it was not as fireworks-ladden as other BattlARTS ending runs Usudas relentless barrage that KO'd Ikeda was as memorable as any finish. This was just straight forward good shit, hardly ever a let down when you put 4 of these guys in a tag.

The Library

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

DEEP Saeki Matsuri 12/9/2004

That time the DEEP MMA promotion ran a bunch of weird as hell pro wrestling matchups. 

Street Fight Barbed Wire Board Match: Hidetaka Irie & Toshiyuki Moriya vs. Anthony Netzler & Saeki "Boo" Shigeru

Saeki is the boss of DEEP. Netzler is an MMA fighter and also, apparently ended up being a druglord? Saeki is pretty fat and he tumbles around in amusing untrained person ways. Even though this match had barbedwire boards, Moriya and Irie didn‘t seem intent on working hard. Netzler didn‘t do anything but hit an insanely bad clothesline at one point. All that said, the match was kind of fun and had amusing moments like Irie hitting a giant swing on the president.

TURBO vs. Genki Yamaguchi

Short kickboxing match that didn‘t have anything interesting in it except a guy named TURBO.

Hiroyuki Ito & IRO-Seki vs. Max Miyazawa & Antonio Koinoki

I kind of like Koinoki. He is pretty agile, executes his Inoki spots very well and isn‘t afraid to get hit. I bet him vs. Riki Senshu would rule. IRO-SEKI is a big sumo with some fun fat guy spots. Ito vs. NIHAO is kind of a dream match and even though they didn‘t go full bore because this was just a semi-comedic undercard match, they were pretty fun together. The finish seemed blown. That‘s about all I can say.

Alexander Otsuka & TAISHO & Satoko Shinaishi vs. Jun Ishii & Yoshinori Oniki & Masakazu Imanari

Another very light hearted match. Imanari acts like a creep towards Shinaishi, everyone is scared of Otsuka, sleazy shenanigans ensue etc. The few serious bits were fun in that MMA guys try pro wrestling way. Dug Imanari ripping out all his awesome leglocks against Otsuka. This could have been much more, but I guess nobody was really welling to break a leg on a card like this I guess.

Yasuhito Namekawa vs. Omiya No Matsu

Well, this was a pleasant surprise. I think Omiya is an actor. He pretty much works a straight shootstyle match against Namekawa. Namekawa is much bigger and would crush Matsu with vicious kicks. Matsu had some impressive throws and takedowns and a nice punch combo at one point. Namekawa was mostly surprised by Matsus skill, but when he had to kick he was crushing Matsu. Pretty good.

Seichi Ikemoto vs. Danshoko Dino

Even in a Dino match, Ikemoto looks like an incredible wrestler. He had a ton of slick counters to Dinos crotch grabbing attacks, and hit some big kicks and throws of his own on offense. Dino can handle himself surprisingly well just doing regular grappling, but he quickly went to his molestation spots. One of the better Dino matches I can remember, I guess?

Masanori Suda & Tomohiko Hashimoto & Dokonjonosuke*Mishima vs. Shoichi Ichimiya & Riki Senshu & Tsubo Genjin

Pretty fun trios. Despite Genjin doing some hick comedy, everyone gave a spirited performance. I even enjoyed Ichimiyas act, as he just did a Keiji Mutoh impression played straight, and he meshed well with Mishima hitting Shining Wizards and eating shootkicks. Senshu was the workhorse of the match as he looked like a damn hero working good segments against everyone, eating everyones offense and dishing out some big backdrops and lariats of his own. Even Hashimoto looked inspired. The highlight of the match was when they did a Choshu/Maeda spot where Suda came in and blasted Senshu in the face with a kick that shocked the audience. A lot can be said how unfair it is that a wrestler as talented as Senshu would never make it beyond Z-level indy recognition due to his size, but he certainly made the most of his raw ability.

Makoto Ohe Retirement Match: Makoto Ohe vs. Kozo Takeda

I can‘t find much information on Ohe online, but apparently he was a UWFi guy and their prized kickboxing fighter. This was just 2 rounds and may be a work but it was a good fight. Ohe went down in the first round due to Takedas nasty leg kicks but gutted it out and got in lots of hits in the second. Maybe interesting to kickboxing fans.

The Library

Matches from IGF 8/9/2007 worth watching

Watch

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Atsushi Sawada

As usual Ishikawa has the best match on the show against a young Sawada in his first match ever. Tough match where Ishikawa mostly beats the shit out of Sawada with brutal kicks and stomach punches, one absolutely disgusting headbutt included. Sawada is big and burly, he swings hard and he has one or two great looking at-will suplexes on Ishikawa. There was less matork than in other Ishikawa matches, but he twisted Sawada into ridiculous ground octopus stretch at one point. Finish was ridiculous as Ishikawa was caving Sawadas face in. It looked like Sawada would power out of the following sleeper but then just went out on his face. Gritty rookie punishment stuff and another night where Ishikawa ruled.

Tom Howard vs. Alexander Otsuka

Tom Howard is kind of a quirky great wrestler. In this match he has a boxing glove on one hand which adds to his goofiness. But the stuff he does looks cool and he's unpredictable. He hits a great trust kick then locks on a random forearm choke that you totally buy might put Otsuka to sleep because IGF undercard matches are weird and it fits Howards character. I also really liked his trip to  counter Otsukas giant swing. Otsuka had a great triangle rana over the fucking rope and hit his big suplex on the big foreigner. I think this went 6 minutes and was a great bizarro world WCWSN match.

WAKASHOYO vs. Erik Paulson

It's MMA and grappling pioneer Erik Paulson against a sumo. LOVE INOKIS BOOKING! Wakashoyo is fun here, pummeling Paulson around and not holding back with his palm strikes. He also hit this huge slam that was really cool. Paulson looks like he would do well in a shootstyle fed, his grappling is very neat and he got some fun takedowns on the big fat guy. Cool finish. I think this lasted 2 and a half minutes.

Kazuhiro Hamanaka vs. Taka Kunou

Wrestling vs. Judo grappling match done almost like a spotfest. Hamanaka has really nice throws and Kunou has a really great flying armbar and STO, and they match up very well and Kunou produces a cool finish. This lasted slightly longer than 3 minutes.

Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Kevin Randleman

It's the MMA legend Randleman against Tatsutoshi Goto underling Michiyoshi Ohara. Ohara gives his all here and they have a scrappy match fighting clinches and beating on each other. Ohara spits on Randleman and Randleman has ridiculously fast shots and damn near kills Ohara with a gigantic suplex. Then Ohara wins it with his awesome running headbutts! This went close to 4 minutes.

BattlARTS vs. Team DERA 2/20/2011

 Yujiro Yamamoto vs. Takashi Miyamoto

Takashi Miyamoto is a skinny guy who wears blue/white martial arts pants right out of the 90s, so he‘s immediately overy with me. Yamamoto at this point was the king at getting really good undercard matches out of not so good wrestlers. This is another example. Here he‘s really working dominant grappler, blocking Miyamotos kicks, taking him down and stepping on his face. Miyamoto gets pissed off and nails him with some stiff kick combos so Yamamoto in turn fires back slapping the taste out of his mouth and more nasty face stepping. Miyamoto continues to get on my good side hitting a neat STO. Easily could‘ve been a whatever match, but we got some nice scrappiness and interpromotional hatred.

Bison TAGAI vs. Shun Kasagi

Kasagi has a T-Shirt and baggy trunks like late 90s Mitsunobu Kikuzawa. He also has a kickpad on one foot and no kickpad on the other~! Tagai controls this on the ground to start and it‘s just fine. After some shootstyle matwork Tagai puts a pro wrestling headlock on Kasagi so he can do something too. Kasagi hits some actually nice kicks. Tagai then hits some shitty looking missed clotheslines and other shitty looking offense. I thought it was gonna end there, but Kasagi comes back and hits a really shitty looking dive and a befuddling botched nothing and this is going way too long now. I forgot how bad TAGAI was.

Keita Yano vs. Konaka=PALE ONE

Keita Yano had become the joker, he was still a BattlARTS guy, but his heart was with doing weird collages of technical wrestling at old school shtick at this point. These two nerds do some WoS tribute matwork full of Johnny Saint spots. They would become better matworkers later on, but were clearly just making baby steps here. I liked Konakas modified Figure 4 but he didn‘t do anything outstanding otherwise. At one point they exchange Abby style throat chops with high pitched yelling. Yano wins with a nice knee trembler where he pulls his kneepad down before hitting it. Fun match for what it was.

Alexander Otsuka & Kenji Takeshima vs. Kengo Takai & TAKASHI

TAKASHI has a fun 90s getup with distinctive colour scheme. This was a fun indy tag. Takai is cool as old guy trying to defend his territory. Nothing outstanding, but he had a cool seciton rolling with Takeshima, and was fired up. Otsuka slammed guys hard and everyone else was throwing potatoe shots. TAKASHI mostly got stretched but when he got to he fired back with stiff elbows and kicks. He got to have a cool moment dropkicking Otsuka in the back of the head when he went to suplex Takai, which set up Takai hitting a gnarly reverse brainbuster on Takeshima for the win. Perfectly enjoyable action.

Munenori Sawa vs. Shigehiro Irie

They decided to let the young guys have the main event, and they made the most of it and beat the shit out of each other. Actually Sawa would retire that year while Irie would go on to own the decade on the Japanese indies. This was Iries humble beginnings, as Sawa stomps and slaps the hell out of him. Almost all Irie has is being really tough and trying to hammer Sawas face in with brutal elbows. Sawa had some goofy tendencies around this time, but he cut it out and to be fair had one of his best performances ever. He was running the show here, and did it well by grounding Irie with some good matwrestling and most importantly trying to beat the soul of him. The one sided nature of the match totally worked and it built to some supremely violent strike exchanges and bomb throwing in the last few minutes with Irie trying to gut it out. I also really appreciate Sawa did not go for his Mutoh tribute signature moves and instead just turned Iries lights out with punches. Good shit and felt like one of the better indy mains of 2011.

 

The Library

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #19

 Takeshi Ono vs. Alexander Otsuka, BattlARTS 8/29/1999 - FUN

Only 3 or 4 minutes where shown here, but every second was great. Otsuka at this time was experimenting with pro style moves a lot, and he was working Ono like a Power Plant guy using a grappling dummy here, just ragdolling him around. There were a few great moments, such as Onos rolling leglock, and Otsuka scrambling over Onos low blow and dumping him with a big suplex that Ono desperately tried to counter. Of course, we get a big Giant Swing spot where Otsuka just launches Ono across the ring like a cartoon character. Finish was totally great with Ono scrambling out of a Dragon Suplex and locking in a slick armbar. Crowd went nuts for Ono tapping out Otsuka and rightfully so.

Takeshi Ono & Mohammed Yone vs. Katsumi Usuda & Daisuke Ikeda, BattlARTS 9/23/1999 - FUN

Exciting looking match, but we only get the second half. Good stiff BattlARTS action. Yone was tolerable as he was there to eat brutal kicks and lariats from Usuda and Ikeda. It‘s always stunning how good Usuda looks even in short clips. His backhands are awesome. The finish was Ono vs. Ikeda and it was some great bomb throwing and counters. Another great finish with Ono scrambling out of Ikedas Death Valley Driver and into another neat lucha rollup turned armbar. Seems Ono was raking in some big surprise wins towards the end of 1999 but it didn‘t seem to go anywhere.

Takeshi Ono vs. Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 12/25/1999 - GREAT

One of the few Ono matches that year to even air in full, and it‘s a great one. Mostly just Ono being a freak, putting on slick submissions on Hijikata, busting out neat counters and punching and kicking him in the face. A lot of Onos stuff could easily be stolen in a pro style context, it just looks so good and makes sense. Hijikata was green-ish but he could strike back when it counted. Loved Ono struggling against Hijikatas Fisherman Suplex. Well executed finish. This hit all the marks in 9 minutes and was just a great opener.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #18

 Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka, Michinoku Pro 1/14/1997 - EPIC

These matches were the BattlARTS guys show up on random Michinoku Pro cards to scare the fans with their violence are always awesome and this was no exception. There were some pretty high end shootstyle exchanges here, Onos slick grappling and Otsukas wrestling stood out, but they uncorked some heinous violence too. Ikeda and Ono did their thing, throwing Otsuka to the floor where the would send him into the rows street fighting kicks. At one point Ikeda was unloading bare knuckle fists left and right to Otsukas face, who could only try to buckle him to the ropes and go for a suplex (as Otsuka does). Great moment where Ishikawa connected a headbutt to the back of Ikedas head to help Otsuka land a suplex. Ono looked fierce again throwing punches, kicks, and getting ragdolled by Otsuka throws. Ishikawa wasn't in the match a ton but rest assured he and Ikeda had their moments punching each in hurty fashion. Finish was pretty brutal too as an Ono kick almost turns Otsukas lights out. He barely gets to his feet only to eat a brutal Ikeda lariat right to his face followed by an absolute slaughter of a kick combo. Otsuka is dead and Ishikawa has a go at Ikeda after the bell. Classy stuff.

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. Mamoru Okamoto & Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 5/10/1998 - FUN

Dominant showing from the Tonpachi Machine Guns. They just kicked ass and made their opponents eat shit. While Ono was fully embracing Oriharas scumminess at this point, he was still lighting up people with some spectacular kicks and submissions. Okamoto and Hijikata ate lots of painful looking kicks and knees in this. Kind of liked Okamoto who's an FMW guy trying hard to pass as a BattlARTS dude, kind of the Fake Ikeda to Hisakatsu Oyas Fake Ishikawa. He had a nice German and nice kicks. Other than and a nice moment where he and Hijikata hit a train of double stomps on Orihara this was kind of a squash. I enjoy the Tonpachi Machine Guns show so I enjoyed this.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #17

 

Takeshi Ono vs. Carl Greco, PWFG 6/18/1995 - FUN

4 minute match which really could‘ve gone a bit longer. Basically a series of intense mat scrambles, Ono is so slick and Greco tosses the fuck out of him. Just a taste of the great dynamic between these two, but it was still cool to check out. Nasty double joint breaking finish.

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Great Sasuke, Michinoku Pro 8/16/1998 - FUN

Ono was doing his Masked Tiger gimmick and Ishikawa came in wearing a Sasuke outfit. Fun brawl which was basically a sprint with Ono flying into the ring with flying kicks and stomps and sometimes chairs and Orihara employing his usual scummy tactics. Sasuke hit some big dives and the finish was between Ishikawa and Ono and while it was brief it was as fun as you expect it to be.

Takeshi Ono & KAW KAW & Etsuko Mita vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Candy Okutsu & Ai Fujita, 3/12/2000 - SKIPPABLE

This match has the dubious honor of being the first skippable Ono match in this project. Mostly perv comedy with so many low blows and stepping on mens genitalia you have to wonder if it was the producers fetish. Girl on girl sections were kind of sloppy, and Ishikawa no selling Mitas piledriver pissed me off. There was one decent Ono/Ishikawa exchange in there but nothing you don‘t get in any other Ono match.

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. Alexander Otsuka & Mamoru Okamoto, BattlARTS 2/7/1998 - FUN

Pretty much all 4 guys dropping bombs on each other. I expected the Tonpachi Machine Guns to dominate with their usual cheating and double teams, but instead Orihara took a big beating and Ono would rush in to save him, usually by kicking people recklessly to break up their moves. Otsuka is totally game in this kind of match, gorilla pressing Orihara and hurling him around with giant swings and suplexes like a rag doll. Eventually Ono embraces Oriharas rotten ways and punches Okamoto in the balls. The Guns continue to lay in a beating with chairs and stomps after the match. The early stages of a wonderful cooperation.

Takeshi Ono vs. Hiroyoshi Kotsubo, Futen 4/24/2005 - FUN

Nasty sub 5 minute squash. I kind of liked the opening movements with Kotsubo being a pure amateur style wrestler and Ono being the complete fighter. Kotsubo quickly proves himself to be useless hitting a crummy German suplex and lariat and Ono goes nuts punching him out. Short, painful, fun to watch.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

RINGS 10/14/1997

 Minoru Tanaka vs. Sanae Kikuta

Sanae Kikuta was in RINGS?! Oh, apparently this was his sole appearance. Fun match do Kikuta grappling the fuck out of Tanaka, so it was better than Tanakas usual match. Kikuta tapped him pretty quickly too.

Alexander Otsuka vs. Chris Haseman

This was awesome. They actually made Otsuka wear kickpads for this. Haseman is a big beastly dude. He throws really fast savate kicks, and is pretty aggressive and uncooperative on the mat. Otsuka doesn‘t really wrestle like his BattlARTS self here and you get to see him throw some strikes he normally wouldn‘t. He really connects hard with some palm strikes and even a big thai knee, but Haseman splits his brow open. It builds to a pretty great second half with some great heated slugging it out and fighting to the ropes. The finish is totally awesome as Otsuka escapes a number of shoulder discolating arm holds from Haseman and cranks in an armlock of his own. Haseman makes the ropes but can‘t get up. It feels like Otsuka took on a monster here, and he broke that monster.

Wataru Sakata vs. Dominic Delaney

I assume Delaney is a kickboxer. He can throw kicks and hands but on the ground he has to go for the ropes pretty much immediately.

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Elvis Sinosic

Yes, Tamura vs. A soviet shooter named Elvis! This started out fun. Elvis was this lanky guy who could grapple. Then Tamura decided to stand up and brutalize Elvis. Just tagging him hard with low kicks and open hands over and over again. That seemed like a 5 minute section of just Tamura circling around this guy and hitting him hard. Then Elvis makes a move and accidentally eye pokes Tamura. Tamura then takes him down and just ends the match cranking an armlock. Guess Elvis did something Tamura didn‘t like there.

Masayuki Naruse vs. Willie Peeters

Stiff non-cooperative looking shootstyle. Peeters works this like a great amateur wrestler who knows only one submission hold. He completely dominated Naruse on the ground and countered all his takedown attempts, but when Naruse rolled on his back Peeters would let him stand up. Naruse even gets a bloody nose and bloody lip from a failed takedown attempt. I liked Peeters immediately palm striking him in the mouth and then locking in a nasty facelock. Naruse keeps shooting for takedowns that always get reversed, and really has nothing on Peeters here. The camera keeps cutting at Maeda in the crowd and I‘m sure he would kick Naruses ass backstage. This was great when Naruse got fired up and laid into Peeters with strikes, but that was like 30 seconds of the whole thing. Naruse, why did keep going for those takedowns? You should‘ve realized you had no chance with them after he sprawled on the first 20. They also kept stopping the match due to the blood until they finally stop it at 17 minutes while Peeters never once looked in trouble. I enjoyed this, especially the sprawl show from Peeters, but it could‘ve been so much more.

THE LIBRARY

GWE Watching #3: Kazunari Murakami

Kazunari Murakami & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka & Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 9/23/1999

 This Murakamis BattlARTS debut and his 5th(!!!) match ever. Talk about being a natural. Murakami mostly does straight shootstyle exchanges with Otsuka here, which are great. Murakami is really aggressive and Otsuka is of course really great at trying to dive past the striking range and going for a suplex. Hijikata was fired up and had one of his better outings ever. Him and Ishikawa mauling each other was some prime BattlARTS psycho material going on. At one point Hijikat went for mount and Ishikawa just punched him in the jaw like it was bare knuckle MMA. Hijikata also nearly dislocated Murakamis arm with a nasty flash armbar. Finish saw Ishikawa just obliterating him with possibly the stiffest enzuigiri I‘ve ever seen. Another pretty great BattlARTS tag. 

 

Yuki Ishikawa & Mohammed Yone vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Kazunari Murakami, BattlARTS 11/9/1999 

Murakamis influence is felt strongly here. He wasn‘t yet the mugging demon, but he was morphing into it, and he brought a hell of a lot of fire. The opening minutes were just a wild old fight. You know things are heated when even Yone is bringing it! Murakami was the focus, but Ikeda came in and reminded everyone who he is by having an insanely violent exchange with Ishikawa. I love Murakami busting out the judo throws. He was a worthy stand in for Ono as Ikedas gloved partner. It builds to a pretty extended an excellent finishing run. Highlights include some sickening muscle busters and Ikeda nearly putting Yones lights out with a chokehold. Yone seemed to be seeing stars following that. Great finish. This went 19 minutes, flew by and was just another great BattlARTS tag. 

Kazunari Murakami & Naoyuki Taira vs. Carl Greco & Yuki Ishikawa, BattlARTS 9/20/2000 

I think this is the first match where it becomes apparent just how much contempt Murakami has for Ishikawa. The match was a really good mix of straight shootstyle exchanges between Taira and Greco and wild brawling between Murakami and Ishikawa. Man, is Murakami just the greatest "aggressive wild offense" wrestler ever? Just wreaking havoc with kicks and punches on his opponents. The spill into the crowd followed by the intense faceoff was just great. Murakami is so aggressive that when they spill to the floor it actually feels like a really dangerous moment. Taira is really fun here throwing both fancy kick variations and hitting the mat. He and Greco have great chemistry. I dug the finish as it was just a series of intense mat exchanges before Greco was able to clamp on one of his special holds. They tease Murakami making the save, but he is too busy with Ishikawa to bother. Great pull apart post match. I imagine this stuff had people in 2000 salivating at the thought of a Murakami/Ishikawa singles match. 

 Kazunari Murakami & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Carl Greco, BattlARTS 10/1/2000 

 This is really a lead in to the Murakami/Ishikawa singles, and what a lead in! Murakami is the Murakami we all know here. Match is all about wild assaults, evil glares, and some wrestling. Him and Ishikawa may be among the most exciting matchups in puro history. I like how Ishikawa didn‘t even wait for Murakami to ambush him and just went at him immediately. Murakamis wild striking looks great. Also, Carl Greco was really great, but you already knew that. The brief minute of grappling he and Murakami did was awesome. Nagai is solid here but thankfully Murakami hating Ishikawas guts is the focus. More post match going at each other, as it should be!

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #12

 

Takeshi Ono vs. Alexander Otsuka, BattlARTS 1/13/1996 - EPIC

This is from the BattlARTS debut show and you can tell they went out there and went hart to get the crowd hooked on their product. Really great straight shootstyle match. Ono is slick on the mat and can land some big strikes, but he is so light Otsuka damn well will use him as a grappling dummy. Anytime Otsuka goes for a takedown or suplex attempt Ono has to stuff him or scramble for the ropes. The early grappling is so slick and technical, the kind of intricate shootstyle matwork that became a bit lighter as BattlARTS became a touring promotion, and it‘s great to watch. It builds to a more tricked out and epic second half than you‘d expect from an 8 minute undercard match, as Ono actually gets the first suplex dropping Otsuka on his head. From then on it‘s Ono wasting Otsuka with nasty kicks and knees and Otsuka desperately trying to get his throws in. Ono is so great here scrambling for chokes and trying to pop Otsukas legs with heel hooks, and when Otsuka gets to his bread and butter, he just tosses the shit out of Ono. Tremendous last couple minutes.

 

Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Alexander Otsuka & Tiger Mask IV, BattlARTS 10/18/1997 – FUN

Opening of this match wasn‘t quite as violent as you are used to from Team Taco, I‘m not super into TMIV shoehorning his pro style spots into a BattlARTS main event, although you had some fun rudo work from Ikeda and Ono. Lots of nasty thudding kicks, and Ono trying to unmask the Tiger before sinking in a choke was a pristine BattlARTS hybrid wrestling moment. It picked up when Otsuka started picking apart Ikedas leg which built to a nasty comeback where Ikeda tried cracking Otsukas jaw with a lariat before we get the Ono vs. Otsuka finishing run. It was a strong finishing run that had several neat moments such as Ono trying to take Otsukas head off with a flying knee and then hitting a nifty sliding leg kick, and of course Otsuka ragdolling Ono hard with suplexes. Still I was kinda hoping for a grandstand Ono/TMIV exchange since Ono had kept trying to unmask TMIV indicating some heat between the two, although what we got was high quality.

Takeshi Ono vs. Katsumi Usuda (8/18/2001) - FUN

Only a 3 minute clip of an 8 minute match was shown, but what was shown looked predictably great. These guys had gotten really great with their transitions at this point, just one slick move after another, that plus BattlARTS level stiffness. Travesty we have so little of this stuff.

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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. 

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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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Takeshi Ono Documentation #3

 

 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.

Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Alexander Otsuka & Satoshi Yoneyama (Inoki Festival 12/1/1996) - EPIC 

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.

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