Daisuke Ikeda v Manabu Suruga (FUTEN, 11/14/10)
This started out with Suruga making what either could've been the smartest play of his career or the biggest mistake of his life. Against Ikeda, in his own house, you want to jump him at the bell? You want to give him a reason to take your head off worse than he already would? Well I guess if you're outgunned and your gambit is to win against the odds then maybe it pays to carry the fight right to your enemy. Some of this was as nasty as anything you'll ever see and not all of it was from Ikeda. Suruga was absolutely willing to die trying to topple the king, knowing full well what he was in for when he threw that first kick. There was no putting that toothpaste back in the tube, no point trying to be cautious, it was go hard or go home in a body bag. The parts where Ikeda unloaded were absurd. He hit what I can only describe as a running single-leg foot stomp to Suruga's head and the ref' even gave him an official warning for it. Think of the boundaries for "wait just a minute now, that was uncalled for!" in FUTEN and what you'd need to do to clear them. Even the glancing blows looked brutal as a whiffed kick could conceivably have splattered Suruga's nose, then Suruga responded by landing a roundhouse kick to a kneeling Ikeda's face, folding him backwards with enough force that I worried for the man's ACLs. The finish is vile. Ikeda has the mount and is cracking a bloody-mouthed Suruga in the forehead with punches, Suruga feebly trying to cover up before being beaten to death, so Ikeda grabs one of his arms and rips him into a gross armbar.
I figured this was the first time I'd seen either of these guys, but after some deep research it might actually have been the second time. The one other NARITA match I'd seen was against Hayato Jr. Fujita, though all I remember about that is Hayato laying an ungodly beating. NARITA feels like the sort of guy who'd have been wrestling in El Dorado or Diamond Ring as a skinny MMA tough boy. He worked very much like I would've expected him to. Nohashi is a pretty unassuming wee fella and works a little differently to how I would've expected him to, in that he will apparently headbutt you directly in the face. Then again, this is FUTEN so why should I be surprised? And for a six-minute opener this was the quintessential FUTEN experience. NARITA immediately starts throwing punches to Nohashi's face, then they wind up on the mat and NARITA is dropping hammer shots to Nohashi's skull from the mount. Nohashi is very soon bleeding from the mouth, hunched over with hands on knees for a quick breather before clonking NARITA with disgusting headbutts. NARITA does an awesome delayed triple German sequence, then when he attempts a fourth one later Nohashi just smashes him in the face with the back of his head, a real alley fight move that looked brutal as fuck. If watching early days shoot style gave you the impression that a half crab was the side headlock of the style then Nohashi about snapping NARITA's leg in two lets you know that things are somewhat different in the world of FUTEN.
Makoto Hashi v Manabu Suruga (FUTEN, 12/19/10)
That short Hashi in FUTEN run was something else. This is coming hot on the heels of the big October tag where he and Ikeda tried to headbutt each other into a state of erasing basic motor functions, so naturally like a fucking lunatic he rolls into this intent on throwing two dozen headbutts. When you consider the fact Shibata nearly died from throwing these sort of blows it's quite harrowing. The first half was less about the headbutts, but they didn't shy away from throwing lots of mean palm thrusts and kicks. There wasn't a whole lot of matwork, spells on the mat were brief, then they kicked into high gear when Hashi about murdered Suruga with a sort of fisherman Michinoku Driver. The back half was very much an extended strike exchange, which once or twice felt a wee bit rote in your modern puro strike exchange way, but was also saved by the fact this is FUTEN and guys will just obliterate each other. Hashi of course went to the headbutts and by the end had a lump the size of an ostrich egg right in the middle of his forehead. I liked how Suruga tried a few different things, using some leg kicks, some backfists, and eventually getting the most joy from throwing brutal kicks to Hashi's arm. He even tried fighting fire with fire at points with his own headbutts, but they didn't get him very far and every exchange left him on his knees furiously rubbing his head. The final backfist was a hideous thing. This was pretty great.
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