Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #21

 

Takeshi Ono & Super Crazy vs. Great Sasuke & Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 4/13/2001 - FUN

This was BattlARTS style mixed with ECW style plunder and high flying. Basically Ono and Hijikata did their usual sections kicking and punching each other hard and Sasuke and Crazy did high flying and hitting each other with plunder. It was a bit more of a novelty match than something crazy and unpredictable. Ono didn‘t really interact with the plunder aside from one moment where he tackled Hijikata into a bunch of chairs which was cool. Hijikata looked good as he usually does opposite Ono and there were a few amusing dives from Sasuke and Crazy. Not crazy enough to move into GREAT territory but it was a fun match.

Takeshi Ono vs. Mohammed Yone, BattlARTS 3/31/2001 - FUN

This was grappling only. Yone is bigger but Ono completely dominates him and armbars him in like 90 seconds. A cool little scramble and nice to see Ono picking up a win.

 

Takeshi Ono vs. Great Sasuke, BattlARTS 5/10/2001 - GREAT

Onos biggest singles match of the year! This was pretty great as Sasuke basically flips-flops into Onos fist a bunch and Ono has a bunch of cool ways to prevent Sasukes high spots and entangle him into submissions. Ono constantly working over Sasuke with stiff punches and kicks was also great. Sasuke was already starting to loose his mind here and he busts out his crazy tope to the apron. GREAT finish, too. One of the smartest junior matches of the decade, honestly.

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GWE Watching #5: Daisuke Ikeda

 Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone vs. Tamon Honda & Kotaru Suzuki, NOAH 3/14/2002

Random undercard match ends up being good thanks to Ikeda having a vendetta against Honda. Ikeda trying to aggress against Honda, almost getting choked out and then taking out his frustration by using Kotaru as a punching bag was pretty great. Yone also decided to lay in his strikes for once, although nothing that comes close to Ikeda brutalizing him with Futen level punts and punches. Hondas hot tag was great but the Yone-centric felt a little underwhelming. Dig Ikeda taking a random loony bump to the outside for the hell of it.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Jun Izumida, NOAH 4/6/2002

Fun match with two lumpy guys trading hard blows. Izumida kinda looked like he was just figuring out what to do as he was on offense, but Ikeda sold for him as if he was the heaviest hitter on the planet. Ikeda unloaded some really nasty looking kicks to Izus arms and shoulders, which Izu sold in a fun way. Izu has some fun spots, particularily his judo sweep and bicycle kick, but his dumbfoundedness kinda detracted from the match. Really fun finish with Ikeda barely edging out the victory with a surprise sleeper.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Takashi Sugiura, NOAH 3/18/2001

Sugiura probably had a fun BattlARTS career as a second rate Otsuka in him but instead got the NOAH career as a second rate Kurt Angle. This was clipped down, but looked like a good little match. Sugiura was green and I didn‘t like his spears, but Ikeda just brutalized him with violent kicks. Ikeda had a really neat reversal of the Karelins Lift. I also liked spot where Sugiura dived right into Ikedas knee.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yoshinari Ogawa, NOAH 6/6/2003

I‘m not sure why I haven‘t heard of this match before; it delivers exactly what you want. Not an epic main event or something, but more than fun midcard match with both guys doing what they do best. Ikeda comes in with a blunt force approach coming at Ogawa with big lariats and kicks, and Ogawa employs all his scuzzy ratboy tactics that we love him for, including some actually cool water bottle spots. Short, with not a dull moment.

 

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Masashi Aoyagi, NOAH 9/2/2001

 Fun little match. Aoyagi is way over the hill and this is just an opening match, but god you can tell Ikeda respects the hell out of him the way he puts him over here. Ikeda takes every single kick Aoyagi knows in brutal fashion. I liked how Ikeda would initially kick out at 1, to remind people that Aoyagi had been retired to undercard old man tags at this point, but then Aoyagi just kept landing the hits, until he almost KO'd with a kick combo in the corner that harkened back to the days of his Onita feud. Aoyagi does 1 or 2 things you don't expect from him, and Ikeda pulls off a neat finish. This is a showcase for Ikeda, the generous worker selling a beatdown, not something people know him for, but he does it very well.

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!

Going through Shodates Best Matches of the 90s List Part 1

 I was a fan of Shodates original PWO message board run. Troll or not, his lists were refreshing and a much needed shot in the arm for dying message board culture, and I'm having fun going through his sometimes baffling, sometimes spot-on match recommendations.

The List

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

BattlARTS begins. And the world would never be the same! I probably would've skipped this, but Mr. Shaw Dahtay rated this as the 87^th best match of the 90s. Will that is probably a weeeee bit too high, it's a fun little squash. 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. Yoneyama gets pretty fired up flurry hitting his abisegiri (his one good spot) but is soon put to pasture. Short, violent, kind of out of nowhere, a fitting beginning to the promotion.

86. Minoru Tanaka vs. Shoichi Funaki (BattlARTS 10/4/1996)

Rated the 86^th best match of the entire 1990s by our man Shouda Tey. This is one of the more baffling choices, as it's a short outburst from Tanaka, before Funaki takes over with a bunch of leg submissions only to get tapped out by a surprise armbar. Effective formula and everything looked good particulary the opening near KO but there was just not a lot of meat to it and Funakis leglocks weren't super interesting.

95. Minoru Tanaka vs. Shoichi Funaki (PWFG 2/28/1994)

The 95^th greatest match of the 1990s as rated by Sh'oh D'Atay. This was a lot better to me than their match 2 years later, but what do I know? This is very much a PWFG undercard match but they show more spirit than probably during their entire BattlARTS run. They really work for the submissions and there are some great leg grabs and chokes. Tanaka hits a plausible shootstyle dropkick and drills Funaki for a near fall with a big judo throw. Watching them here is so different from the soft uninspired matwork they'd do later. Nifty finish. Really more of a unique snapshot of what could have been, as I could see these guys having a really great match if they kept working like this, but it's a cool match.

245. Akira Hokuto & Toshie Uematsu vs. Kyoko Ichiki & KAORU, GAEA 1/19/1997

This was #245 on our friend shodate's list of the Top 250 90s matches. Good thing because otherwise I probably would've never watched this. This was fantastic and instantly became one of my favourite joshi matches of the year. Lots of cool uncooperative exchanges throughout, and the match told a good story. You had Hokuto being two classes above both opponents (and making that very clear), Uematsu refusing to back down and wrestling a class above hers, and Kaoru and Ichiki trying everything to gain the advantage and topple their opponents. There were some basic spots such as biting, stomping eye rake or hair pulling toss which felt really violent here. There was also plenty of awesome receipt spots, especially whenever Hokuto felt disrespected, she would step up and show who's boss usually by booting someone in the face. There was also plenty of head droppin death moves and crushing diving attacks. Despite that the match didn't feel like overkill and ended at just the perfect spot. Little weak transitions here maybe, but yeah all things considered I enjoyed the hell out of this.

Takeshi Ono Documentation #4

 Takeshi Ono vs. Yuki Ishikawa, BattlARTS 6/18/2000 - EPIC

From what I've gathered, Ono in these days was relegated to lower carder status whose single matches were either clipped, or against total scrubs, which is a shame. This is a rare chance to see a proper match, and it seems Ono at this point was not much less good than he was in 2010. They make the most out of an 8 minute match, Ishikawa is bigger and much higher ranked, but he takes a bit of a backseat and lets Ono go all out. Match has some pretty spectacular matwork, Ono is amazing at diving for submissions at lightning speed, which gives Ishikawa a good opportunity to show off his mat skills against a highly skilled opponent. To supplement the matwork Ono beats Ishikawa full force, including pounding on his head with fists and knees on the ground. The last couple minutes are especially off the charts, a proper main event between the two would've been amazing.

Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Mohammed Yone & Masao Orihara, BattlARTS 6/25/1999 - EPIC

This is an awesome match; it's not very BattlARTS-alike as it's more pro-styled with no real matwork and not a lot of impact moves, but instead everyone in the match straight up dishes out the punishment left and right. Battle of shitheads pretty much sums it up as neither team is playing nice, Ikeda tries to claw Yone's face off a few times, while Orihara and Ono are at their sleazy best. You wouldn't think Orihara fits well into BattlARTS but he adjusts nicely, including an awesome one inch punch to Ono's face and a truely Usuda-styled breakup of a pinfall. I recall thinking Yone kind of sucked back then, but he was impressive as a tank just taking it to Ikeda, and his goofy leg drop was deadly looking. Ono was a little different then, less of a boxer more of a wrestler, but he was punching and kicking people in their faces as good as 11 years later, and his flying around and ballsily eating of an Orihara dropkick was cool. Ikeda was the Ikeda we all know and love. You will want to watch this.

Takeshi Ono vs. Mohammed Yone (BattlARTS 10/26/2001) - GREAT

This was one of the last regular BattlARTS shows of the first period and they are wrestling in a really rickety ring with a ton of sponsorship logos, end days BattlARTS was weird. This was peak Takeshi Ono, ultra precise, vicious strikes, lightning fast transitions and grappling. He was the worlds most spidery William Regal here trying to take out Yones arms and legs. Yone is pretty worthless as he doesn’t sell shit, but he was working a bit stiffer than normal and didn’t run the ropes as much due to the ring, he also took a nasty bump for an Ono suplex and got kicked in the face. This stuff why you have to watch everyone Takeshi Ono has done, just single-handedly salvaging throwaway matches like it’s nothing.

Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinari Ogawa, AJPW 6/29/1997 - FUN

Ikeda and Ono come in and get a really nice reaction, then Kikuchi and Ogawa kind of eat their lunch. Kikuchi was uncooperative to the max and didn't sell a thing. Ogawa just did his usual spiel. There were some stiff as hell moves here, including Ikeda dishing out some of his stiffest shots I've ever seen on Kikuchi, Kikuchi firing back like a madman and Ono responding to Ogawa's pro style punches with shoot strikes, aswell as a brutal series of german suplexes to Ono. Fun match, but I would've liked a real match and not something borderline unprofessional.

This was about the only match of Ikeda in AJPW where he was treated as anything special. I wonder if this was some sort of test as lot of AJPW guys were watching from the side.

 

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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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