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Post by jetlag on Jan 10, 2018 16:14:54 GMT -5
tl;dr badass high end BattlARTS action with all the stiffness and mat exchanges you can ask for. One of the best bouts the promotion has produced
Full review:
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.
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Post by superstarsleeze on Feb 3, 2019 21:20:04 GMT -5
Wholeheartedly seconding this! I love BattlArts tag team matches. I think they are even better BatBat singles matches. thought this was on the level of the October 96 tag and I would say I would like this a shade more just because I thought the psychology was a bit more pronounced Ikeda really going for the KO, they worked over Ikeda's leg creating a ton of drama, the Ishikawa/Usuda segment was some really tense grappling. Didnt love the finish, I didnt feel like it fit with the wildness of the match, but it was definitive. Another BatBat tag match that everyone should check out.
Yuki Ishikawa & Takeshi Ono vs Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda - BattlArts 1/21/97
How are the teams decided in BattlArts? In October, Ono and Ishikawa were on separate teams. Is the only rule that Ishikawa & Ikeda must be opposing sides?
This is another Jetlag recommendation nominated in the Greatest Match Every project. Anytime, Ishikawa and Ikeda hook it up it is going to be good. I thought these were some of the best Ikeda kicks I have ever seen. They really played up the striker vs wrestler matchup in the first half of the match. Each of the heavy hitters had to save their junior partner in the opening exchange then they both came in and Ikeda LIT Ishikawa up, but Ishikawa always had the counterpuncher's chance and was able to lock in a deep kneebar. This enabled him to tag out to Ono with the advantage. Ono continued to work the leg, but Usuda saved him with a kick to Ono's back. I thought the Usuda/Ono stuff has been technically good, but is a step down in electricity from Ikeda and Ishikawa. Ono should have tagged out a couple times, but he waits to get the advantage to tag out. Usuda does a great job using his kicks to position Ishikawa into his team's corner and Ikeda & Usuda double team Ishikawa with ferocious kicks. Usuda wisely tags out. Ikeda is just rifling Ishikawa. They are right to the head and he gets a knockdown triggering the count. Ikeda tags out to Usuda, big mistake. He took his foot off the gas pedal. Ishikawa explodes with a backdrop driver and Usuda is OUT! He is easy pickins' for Ono who kicks him in the face for the knockdown. Usuda is able to get to Ikeda to tag him in. Remember how they were working on Ikeda's leg well that turns out to be a big deal. Ono escapes and as Ikeda is getting to his feet, Ono rifles him with a kick and it is ON! Ishikawa tries desperately to submit Ikeda with a variety of toeholds and legbars. A combination of Usuda & the ropes are the only things that saved Ikeda. Ono tries to KO Ikeda, but in the process does not keep himself between Ikeda and the corner. Bad tag wrestling. Ikeda tags out. Ishikawa comes in. I was wondering what the strategy would be. Ishikawa is going with the dump Usuda on his head strategy and then goes for the Fujiwara armbar, but Usuda is game on the mat and traps Ishikawa in a cross armbreaker, Ono quickly saves, but the damage has been done. Usuda's strategy is to go after Ishikawa's arm, but Ishikawa is guarding well. Usuda wrangles a rear naked choke, but Ishikawa makes the ropes. Ishikawa goes for the leg and gets a single leg crab. Ikeda smokes him in the face! Ono comes flying in with a superman knee and that blasts Ikeda in the face. Ishikawa locks in a kneebar, but Usuda desperately makes the ropes. Ishikawa smartly tags out to the fresh Ono who summarily knocks Usuda down with a kick to the face to trigger the count. Octopus Stretch by Ono...Ikeda cracks him in the back of the head. First wild swing by Ikeda misses, BEAR PAW SWIPE STRIKES ONO DOWN! Usuda hits a spinning back chop to Ono's neck and applies a rear naked choke. Why the fuck did Ishikawa just stand on the apron? Usuda taps Ono.
BatBat tag matches are definitely one of my favorite genres of matches. They do a brilliant job integrating shoot-style and All Japan tag structure into a beautiful hybrid. I thought this was on the level of the October 96 tag and I would say I would like this a shade more just because I thought the psychology was a bit more pronounced Ikeda really going for the KO, they worked over Ikeda's leg creating a ton of drama, the Ishikawa/Usuda segment was some really tense grappling. Didnt love the finish, I didnt feel like it fit with the wildness of the match, but it was definitive. Another BatBat tag match that everyone should check out. ****1/2
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Post by KB8 on Oct 10, 2020 8:46:19 GMT -5
Easy third
Geez Louise what a match. This was off the charts premium Battlarts that gave you everything you could want in such a thing. It might be my favourite kind of wrestling. The matwork was air tight without surrendering any of that Battlarts roughness, the striking was god tier violent, the partner saves were sheer madness and it had the cool wrinkle of Ikeda and Ono being on opposite sides for a change, which is a bit of a rarity but something we know always delivers. The first minute or so was absolute perfection as we opened with some amazing scrambling from Ono and Usuda, Ikeda coming in unprompted and punting his usual partner in the head, and Ishikawa following suit by dropping a headbutt on an unawares Usuda. Ono and Usuda had several exchanges during this that wouldn't have looked out of place in RINGS, only here there was that ever-present danger of rolling too close to a corner and getting your face stomped on mid-kneebar. Another ever-present is that Ikeda/Ishikawa rivalry and this had some of the all-time greatest Ikeda/Ishikawa exchanges. There was one part where Ikeda was absolutely hammering Ishikawa with kicks and Ishikawa refused to give him the satisfaction of winning even a single exchange, and I about lost it when he managed to get up and just throw his head clean into Ikeda's face. These two have thrown some truly disgusting headbutts at each other over the years and I honestly don't recall seeing one as reckless as that. Ishikawa and Ono paint a bullseye on Ikeda's leg and Ono tries to kick it apart at the knee while Ishikawa bends it at all angles. Ono is just teeing off on him at one point, leg kicks, kicks to the midsection, the back of the head, everything. Ikeda is stumbling around like a man who has no clue where he is and I loved that he eventually tagged out by just collapsing, maybe through luck and nothing more, into the general vicinity of his own corner. Also loved Ono saving his payback for that first Ikeda interjection by waiting until Ishikawa was trying to apply an armbar, casually coming in and kicking Ikeda's hands apart. If I was being hyper-critical I'd say the finish was maybe a touch anticlimactic, and I guess it lacked the drama of your absolute gold standard Battlarts finishing runs, but this was tremendous and stands out as one of the best matches in a ridiculously stacked year for good wrestling matches.
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Post by elliott on Sept 16, 2023 12:37:23 GMT -5
Usual great BattlArts tag.
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