Aoyagi v Kurisu; Ishikawa v Ikeda (potatoes for days!)

Masaji Aoyagi v Masa Kurisu (New Japan, 2/5/91)

This was about seven minutes of what you expect out of these two. So if you like what they bring to the table then you'll like seven minutes of them bringing it to the table. I fucking liked what they brought to the table. Aoyagi wasted no time at all and flew at Kurisu with a spin kick as soon as he got in the ring, then shortly thereafter absolutely splattered his nose with a hellish looking knee. Kurisu can sometimes be stingy when it comes to selling strikes so you really need to convince him it's worth his while, and this was one of those shots that he was selling to the back row whether he liked it or not. Of course he gets his revenge by jabbing the point of a chair into Aoyagi's mush and headbutting him about a dozen times in the ear. The referee's first mistake was trying to take the chair off him. His second mistake throwing the match out and trying to take it from him again. He should've walked away and let someone else unfuck that situation. Kurisu as this uncontrollable menace battering referees and ring boys with chairs is really one of the finer things in this game of ours.


Yuki Ishikawa v Daisuke Ikeda (Battlarts, 11/5/11)

Ludicrous strikes, rough grappling, the nastiest version imaginable of at least one thing -- it's the Battlarts. This felt a wee bit greatest hitsy at points, but it's the two kings of the style and it was a fitting way for them to close the book on their rivalry. There was this thread running through the match of Ikeda throwing absolute bastard headbutts - the first was truly revolting - that he always comes out of worse for wear. Ishikawa is a Fujiwara trainee so I guess it'd make sense that he'd develop a rock hard skull. He doesn't quite no-sell them, but he shakes them off pretty quickly while Ikeda is left dizzy. Ikeda's pride won't let him quit though, and when he finally manages to keep Ishikawa down for more than a couple seconds it feels like a true victory for hard-headed stupidity. I have nothing to substantiate this but the crowd here didn't really feel like your usual Battlarts crowd. Maybe it was the occasion of the final Battlarts show bringing out some filthy casuals. Either way some of the reactions were different than usual. Even when these two were smashing the enamel off each other's teeth the die hard Battlarts crowds seemed to take it all in with a sort of silent - maybe stunned - regard. This crowd reacted almost in horror a few times (every headbutt), popped big for some of the crazier punches and kicks, there was even a comedy spot thrown in there. It was like they'd heard about the Battlarts boys coming to town for one final set and this was their last chance to see the two old nutjobs beat the brakes off each other. That all sounds way snobbier than intended because I do not care one way or the other, but there's an amusing sort of irony in the last ever Ishikawa v Ikeda being a monkey show. Some of the selling towards the end was a little spotty, transitions not coming as smoothly as usual, like a beat was skipped or there was a jump in the tape and you missed what came between Ikeda punting Ishikawa in the jaw and Ishikawa suplexing Ikeda on his neck. Maybe they read the crowd and decided just to play the blockbusters. If you want the deep cuts you know where to find them.