Kakuto Tanteidan IV ~ Straight Ahead 10/23/2025

 Ali Najima vs Kosuke Sato, KT 10/23

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

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

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

Keita Yano vs Manabu Hara - EPIC

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

Yuki Ishikawa & Mohammed Yone vs Daisuke Ikeda & Ikuto Hidaka

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

Fuminori Abe vs Hikaru Sato

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

The Library 

2025 Matchguide 

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

2025 Wrestling Matchguide Week 41

 Avisman vs Eragon, 10/4

Mask vs hair baby. They brought it here and that is a nice thing to see for two indy luchadores working in a dingy hall. Avisman has always been a really good worker and Eragon, for someone who I last heard about like 15 years ago working undercard matches in IWRG, looked good. Most notably this was an apuestas match that brought a lot to the table. I mean, I haven't watched too many of these matches lately, but a lot of what has plagued these matches from what I've seen in the 2010s-2020s is absent here. There are no throwaway falls, they made sure to create struggle and drama, and even did callbacks to tie everything. And on top of that you have all the mask ripping and gory sick blood and headbutts you want from your gritty indy apuestas match. Bit odd that they started with llave style mat wrestling and it was good work. Avisman increasing the pressure by hitting a dive and going to town on Eragon tearing him up and bloodying him was also good work. Hey, the dives in this actually feel important which is great and another aspect of classic lucha that is often missing from modern wrestling. Really a nice piece of wrestling all things considered.

Ali Najima & Masanori Watanabe vs Yoichi Shinmei & Yuta Oya, Sportiva 10/22

Sportiva continues to deliver. Shinmei is this guy who has been around a really long time, being the ace of JWA Tokai 20 years ago. At some point he vanished, and now he's back in Sportiva. He was this really athletic old guy who would hit cool stylized elbows. He had good chemistry with both Najima and Watanabe, never looking out of his depth. It was pretty cool to see such an obscure wrestler showing up and doing his thing, and I hope he becomes a regular appearance in Sportiva. We all know how good the other 3 have gotten and this was another night where Najima, Watanabe and Oya proved they might be the most talented trio of young wrestlers on earth right now. Just loads of good wrestling with the matchtime just flying by. Some great limbwork here, and the Watanabe/Oya finishing run is good stuff. After this I really want to see a singles match between Watanabe and Oya.

Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone & Naomichi Marufuji vs Shuji Ishikawa & Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Kotoge, NOAH 8/25/2025

I will be upfront here: the main reason you want to see this is the 2 minutes or so where Ikeda and Shuji Ishikawa try to headbutt each others brains to a molten pulp. That was some pretty good pro wrestling. Other than that, eh parts of this were fun and the crowd was hot. Yone looked good here, hitting people really hard and doing his signature glassy eyed selling which I always love. I could actually see myself enjoying him in a match against some better guys. I don't really care about the other guys here and there was lots of chopping and standing in front of each other... Marufuji was so comically bad and his superkicks were missing by a mile. His little segment with Shuji Ishikawa felt like old man comedy. Kotoge is pretty worthless with his constant thigh slapping and Shiozaki was probably the least impressive as always. Nevermind that, Ikeda hit someone with a really hard lariat too~!

Marino Saihara & Yukina Uehara vs Rico Fukunaga & Sakura Mizushima, AWG 10/19

Credible, stiff pro wrestling with a fast pace. Hard to believe but AWG is quietly putting out some really good stuff. Everyone here looked good, sticking to what they were good at. Thought this got really good when Fukunaga and Mizushima started damaging Ueharas legs. Uehara needs a bit of work as a wrestler, but her kicks are pretty fun. Fukunaga definitely knows what she's doing. Her working over Uehara with low kicks, and even goading her into falling for a dragonscrew was quality stuff. Match then went from very good to great with the Saihara vs Fukunaga finishing run. Lots of great exchanges and desperation, and the build to Saiharas German suplex was amazing. Saihara is the AWG champ, and Fukunaga and Mizushima do everything in their power to beat her. It was 100% classic Japanese wrestling stuff, lots of kicks, shootstyle submissions all building to a suplex. This ended up great, and Saihara and Fukunaga looked like two of the best wrestlers in the country.

2025 Matchguide

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.

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project Master List

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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