Daisuke Ikeda vs. Alexander Otsuka (Battlarts - 4/26/1999)

Battlarts was always a niche promotion, but it earned a rabid cult following due to its unique synthesis of shoot style and pro style elements. Even by the standards of the promotion, this match is completely off the wall. The best description I can think of is strong style meets New Japan juniors, but even that doesn’t fully capture what a war this is. They mostly dispense with the mat wrestling (or at least clip it out since it’s JIP about three minutes in) and focus on just beating the shit out of each other. The clipping throws the viewer right in the deep end as it picks things up just before Otsuka busts Ikeda open hardway with shoot headbutts. There are plenty of shoot-style submissions, but they tend to have pro-style setups where the wrestler applies it after incapacitating his opponent with a strike or impact move rather than through maneuvering on the mat. In addition to hitting each other stupidly hard and dumping each other on their heads with suplexes, they employ high-flying offense like a frankensteiner, a diving headbutt, a tope con giro, even a space flying tiger drop. There’s even some surprising psychology when Otsuka does a Steamboat/Rude-style counter to a German suplex by landing on the ribs he had worked over earlier in the match. I’d point to this match as another example of how judicious use of ten-counts can allow wrestlers to trade bombs while still selling the impact. This borders on being difficult to watch at points, but it’s undeniably a harrowing slugfest.