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

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

JPWA 4/14/2000

 

1. Billy Scott vs. Mamoru Okamoto

2. Tomohiko Hashimoto vs. Tom Burton

3. Retsu Maekawa vs. James Woodin

4. Kohei Sato vs. KC Geyer (KC Thunder)

5. Koichiro Kimura vs. Shawn Hernandez (Hotstuff Hernandez)

 

The card looks interesting, but unfortunately, they clipped all the matches. Quite unecessesarily, because most of these were around the 7 minute mark except the main event and opener. Billy Scott looked quite good in the first match, doing some nifty wrestling, and his opponent, former BattlARTS undercarder Okamoto bringing the punishment. The 2nd match was wrestler vs. judoka that looked fun from the glimpses. Tom Burton looked old as dirt, but still like a credible asskicker, so it's obvious that I love him. Maekawa/Woodin was barely shown. Woodin had funny bleach blond hair and was not in great shape, so kinda looked like a garbage worker. Sato/KC looked like a fun power vs. skill matchup, with Sato looking especially good, and KC (a huge musclehead) looking nervous.

 

Then the main event - this was 28 minutes clipped down to 17 minutes. And Shawn Hernandez is Hotstuff Hernandez in a singlet, looking like an absolute tank. This match was a match of two sides - 1. Hernandez was absolutely killing Kimura for the entire duration, launching him around with some of the most beastly throws I've ever seen and exploding his nose with a stiff palm strike. 2. the absolute stupidity of putting Kimura, a guy who's not all that good, and Hernandez, a guy with very little experience especially not at shootstyle wrestling in a match this long. Hernandez didn't seem to know any submissions, Kimura added very little, and for some reason they did not allow rope breaks at this show, so even with the clipping, a lot of this was two guys lying on the mat, one of them being very unsure. Thankfully, Tom Burton was at ringside to tell Hernandez what to do step by step: "Take the ankle! Good, now slap him once!" Now that's a veteran, carrying a green guy when he's not even in the match! God bless you, Tom Burton. Fujiwara also was at ringside, and at one point was convinced Hernandez was throwing fists, so he took offense and took his jacket off, ready to go at him. So, Fujiwara and Tom Burton did more to add to this match than Kimura. Kimura eventually got to pick up the win after he KO'd Shawn with a lucky kick after absolutely getting his shit pushed in for 28 minutes, and admittedly this got a pretty excited reaction from the crowd. So I guess the match did work after all! Kinda funny to watch, and makes you wonder if with a little more help from Tom Burton Hernandez could turn into the next Shamrock or a great tag partner for Lesnar.

 

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