Friday FUTEN!

Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono v Kengo Mashimo & Hikaru Sato (FUTEN, 1/22/12)

I'll tell you one thing this wasn't - a by god monkey show. I can't remember where I read this now, or if I'm even correct on who said it, but years ago I read an excerpt from a John Mayer interview where he was describing the song 'Little Wing' by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. He said something along the lines of it being like a lost relative visiting you in a dream and how you'd wake up wishing those two minutes could last forever. Sort of a morbid thing to bring up during these times, I suppose, but watching this today it was what came to mind. FUTEN is - or was - that promotion that would show up a few times a year, be completely awesome, then disappear into the ether. And it's not just that this was tremendous - it was tremendous in a way that we're not always used to. It was outrageously stiff and everybody hammered everybody else; the key tenets of your Battlarts/FUTEN philosophy remained intact, but for large parts it had Team Taco playing underdog. You're used to Ikeda as wrecking ball and Ono will always be hyper aggressive, but this time Mashimo and Sato had it all scouted and for the first half of the match they more or less dominated. Ono/Sato started it out and you could just sense Ikeda itching to come in and whack someone. He's pacing the apron, he's halfway through the ropes a few times, and at one point Ono even gave him the thumbs up that he had things well in hand. It wasn't even Ikeda who threw the first cheapshot, it was Sato, and it was directed at Ikeda himself. Mashimo went and got the better of him in their exchange and you start to wonder when Ikeda takes matters into his own hands. Then about halfway in we get a lengthy Ikeda/Sato pairing. This was six minutes of insanity, usually Ikeda's bread and butter, except this time Sato had an answer for everything. You keep thinking Ikeda's going to remember who he is and kill him and then Sato will just completely rip his face off with a slap (legitimately one of the wildest slaps I've ever seen). And good grief the headbutt section. Ikeda laughing and muttering something ("do you even know who I am?" probably) when Sato retaliates was incredible, but damn if he didn't go headbutt for headbutt and maybe even come out the victor! Ono/Mashimo to round us out was serious top drawer FUTEN finishing stretch material and it continued the theme of the veterans coming up short. Mashimo countering a high kick with a leg sweep looked brutal (no seriously), but Ono's knee to the back of the head and following uppercut was a fucking absurdity. Even in a year of Lesnar/Cena and Panther/Casas this might be MOTY. We one and all miss FUTEN.