Battlarts and Indie Sleaze!

Yuki Ishikawa v Carl Greco (Battlarts, 4/13/96)

I wonder where this match-up ranks in the pantheon of prominent Battlarts match-ups. Ishikawa/Ikeda is probably always going to be #1, but when was these two lacing into each other never not a treat? This had Greco at his squirmy best, just all over Ishikawa, constantly moving and transitioning. He controlled most of this when it was on the ground and Ishikawa was largely on the defensive. The problem for Greco was that Ishikawa never seemed to be in TOO much trouble. On the other hand, even if Ishikawa wasn't controlling the fight he was the one responsible for the most dangerous moments. There would be spells where he'd need to bide his time, but then he'd catch an opening and Greco would need to scramble for the ropes. I don't think Ishikawa needed to force a single rope break in the first two thirds while Greco needed several. Greco opting to drill Ishikawa in the face instead was quite the awesome wrinkle. He caught him with one upkick that dropped Ishikawa for an eight or nine and then you had the dynamic where maybe Greco didn't need to be winning the ground exchanges in order to win the fight. Finish is insane as he unloads with three kicks to the jaw that put Ishikawa out cold, then just to be sure he applies a brutal choke as Ishikawa's tongue turns purple. Either Ishikawa's bell got run legit or it was some of the best selling I've ever seen. Hell, it's Battlarts, maybe it was both.


Masashi Aoyagi & Gokuaku Umibozu v Shinichi Shino & Rikio Ito (WDF, 7/16/97)

This was exactly the kind of grimy, borderline-unprofessional scrap you expect out of Aoyagi and a few obscure indie scrubs in face paint. I'd never seen Ito or Shino before. I guess Ito is doing some third rate Power Warrior knock off while Shino has that voluminous Marty Jannetty mullet and dresses like Onita. Couldn't tell you if either of them are actually any good but Ito looks barely trained and watching him recklessly throw the other two around with powerbombs was sort of terrifying. They jump the karatekas at the start and within eleven seconds Aoyagi is cut open and leaving blood smears down the ring post. Umibozu plays a solid FIP so Aoyagi assumes the role of Tenryu in a karategi entering sporadically to kick guys in the spleen. Umibozu punches Shino in the privates a couple times and Aoyagi comes in off the hot tag crowbarring, then it all turns a bit sour as Umibozu whips out a pair of scissors or something and tries to stab Shino in the head. Naturally the match gets thrown out when Aoyagi hangs Ito to the ring post and kicks the shit out of him. Our referee gets repeatedly thrown around like an empty tracksuit for her troubles and I applaud her trying to maintain order for as long as she did. Of course this ruled, how the fuck couldn't it?


Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake v Masayoshi Motegi & Shinichi Nakano (WDF, 7/16/97)

This was even seedier, even nastier, even better. I mean think about that statement. The last match had someone getting attacked with scissors and lynched to a ring post. This didn't have anything quite as brazen, but it was far more primitive. All things considered you can work being stabbed in the head with a sharp object or being strangled pretty safely. It's smoke and mirrors. It's harder to work being drilled in the forehead or orbital bone with the edge of a chair and make it look good without hurting like a bastard. This had lots of edge-of-the-chair hits to the forehead and orbital bone that looked like they hurt like a bastard. It started out with an indie parity stand-off between Goto and Nakano and it might've been the best indie parity stand-off ever just because it's fucking Tarzan Goto doing indie parity stand-offs. Then the hellish beatdown started. They didn't go straight to the chairshots, Goto and Miyake wrestled mostly clean initially, but it was potatoey clean and Motegi was the recipient. He fired back and hit a couple dives to the floor, but he never should've let it go out there because you put Tarzan Goto anywhere near a chair he's hitting you with it. He hit Motegi with several, often with the edge of it, often dead in the forehead, sometimes in the throat. One shot took the padded seat off at the hinges so Goto just smashed him over the spine with the frame. This genuinely had some of the best working the cut stuff I've ever seen. Motegi bleeds a ton and Goto is covered in blood up to the elbow as he throws disgusting little rabbit punches to the cut, bites the forehead, etc. Miyake's decision to wear white pants on the night pays dividends as he drops knees across the forehead leaving blood stains on the material. Nakano comes in off the hot tag, but he has a bandage over his eye so before long Goto and Miyake are punching him in the eyebrow and jabbing him in the face with chair legs. At one point it looked like they were winding up for a double clothesline on Motegi but then they just double punched him in the forehead. If I had one complaint it'd be that there wasn't really much of a babyface comeback, but the match was clipped by a few minutes so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. What a night of indie sleaze perfection. Imagine this was the kind of thing Meltzer went gaga over? We'd have six hundred Tarzan Goto ripoffs running around with rabies rather than six hundred Tetsuya Naitos.