Takeshi Morishima vs. Daisuke Ikeda (NOAH - 6/1/2004)

Brawler vs. shooter is a natural matchup, and they don’t get much better than this. The referee gets wiped out multiple times, and this has the atmosphere of an underground martial arts street fight. Morishima comes in with a damaged right knee, which Ikeda targets with kicks and a kneebar. For the most part, though, this is total Morishima domination in the opening minutes. When his lariats and slams aren’t enough to finish Ikeda off, he decides to go full ECW. He nails Ikeda in the head with a frightening JBL/Eddie-level chairshot and then tries to backdrop him off the apron through a table. Ikeda is able to block it by going back to Morishima’s injured knee and ends up putting Morishima through the table with a death valley driver. Given how one-sided the match had been up to that point, that was probably the most believable way to close the gap. After being brained with that chairshot, Ikeda returns the favor by teeing off on Morishima’s head with shoot punches and kicks. Given the punishment they were inflicting on each other, limiting this to 12 and a half minutes was a smart move.