Badass eight minutes. This was the second match on the first ever Battlarts show and a great little intro to what makes these two awesome. It doesn't feel like a particularly prominent singles match-up in the history of Battlarts even though, along with Ishikawa and Ikeda, they're two of whatever your Battlarts equivalent of the All Japan 4 Pillars are (maybe just the Battlarts 4 Pillars?). Without doing a Cagematch check I'd guess this has actually happened as a televised match-up the least of the possible pairings. And that's unfortunate because it's an awesome styles clash sort of match. They gave us a bit of Otsuka chucking folk around with suplexes, a bit of Ono winging strikes, Otsuka rolling him around on the mat, Ono diving at limbs and trying to pull them off. A few moments were a bit tame by Battlarts standards, usually a punch or two by Otsuka, but Ono had already settled into his groove as a striker and reeled off a few corkers. We also got a glimpse of him stepping beyond the bounds of decorum by stomping Otsuka in the back of the head for a near TKO. Really liked a few of the little touches they added as well, like Ono kicking Otsuka's leg out from under him after a takedown attempt so he could properly sink in the heel hook. Super fun bout.
Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono v Yuki Ishikawa & Katsumi Usuda (Battlarts, 10/4/96)
Look at those names, you know this was good. Even JIP with about five minutes missed, you know this was good. Every match-up works like it always does, but the crux of this was Ikeda and Ono being bigger bastards than their opponents and that leading to Ishikawa/Usuda getting the skin kicked off them for every submission break. Ono about punted Ishikawa's liver through the ceiling and there were several times where Ikeda, from the apron, would just stomp on Usuda's head whenever any action rolled over by that corner. There was also a bit of Ikeda being big brother in this, as most of the partner saves early on were by him when Ono was in a predicament. Ono returned the favour in time, but it was a cool little southern tag-ish wrinkle on the Battlarts formula.
Taka Michinoku v Minoru Tanaka (Battlarts, 10/30/96)
This was alright. I don't really give a shit about Tanaka and never have, but I have plenty time for Taka and he looked really good in this, mostly with his selling. His springboard missile dropkick was a peach and in typical Battlarts fashion he hit it like he was trying to remove Tanaka's head from his shoulders. You could probably split this into two chapters - the first chapter being the matwork and the second chapter being the finishing run. The matwork part was fine as far as juniors matwork segments go. It at least felt like it had some urgency and wasn't just a way of killing time. There was a bit of duelling legwork for a second there that I actually wish they kept rolling with, because if nothing else Tanaka will throw pretty leg kicks and snap into kneebars with some HASTE. Finishing run was fine and nothing felt eye-rolly. Near-submissions and knockouts at least allow for some extra selling that your 2.999 counts don't so it never got ridiculous. So there you go.
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