[2008-06-01-BattlARTS-Young Generation Battle] Yuki Ishikawa vs Carl Greco

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[dawho5]

This is a really good grappling match. Greco is clearly the quicker of the two and he has counters every time Ishikawa gets aggressive and shoots in on him. Once Ishikawa is in trouble, he seems to have trouble escaping as Greco always seems a step ahead. Greco also likes to use bodyscissors style moves in an attempt to take away Ishikawa's breathing. Ishikawa switches it up and lets Greco be the aggressor, which leads to a few successes for Ishikawa. He gets a little overconfident and forgets how he got to Greco and shoots right in off a rope break, which leads to more problems for Ishikawa. Ishikawa tries to even things up with a suplex as he is clearly the bigger and stronger of the two. Greco scrambles right back into grappling with a clearly winded Ishikawa. Ishikawa smartly goes back to counter wrestling and it works, getting him some very nice submissions that Greco narrowly escapes. Ishikawa continues with the advantage and momentum, but can he make the comeback before the slippery Greco finds the hold that Ishikawa can't escape? This should probably be above 75, but very likely not in the top 50.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I missed the Ishikawa cardio hook that would have probably made this match more interesting to me.

Yuki Ishikawa vs Carl Greco - BattlArts 06/01/08

 

A mat grappling lovers dream match as this features no strikesand just one throw. It is all takedowns and grappling, BABY~! I love matwork a lot and think wrestling should always have a little wrestling in it, but too much of a good thing ain't always good. Story is really want drives my interest in wrestling. It is why I prefer it to real sports because you can create an interesting narrative and it is worth watching over and over again. This featured some of the best matwork I have ever seen. I just did not get a sense of a story. Carl Greco was trained by the Malenkos in Florida and Ishikawa is the owner and Ace of BattlArts. Opening jockeying was won by Greco with a front chancery/back heel trip. The opening work on the amr was excellent. Each men was moving and looking for an advantage. It never felt like an exhibition. They were always struggling with each other. Ishikawa may catch Greco in a crossface or Greco may catch Ishikawa's leg. Greco was the first to use the ropes. Greco was really adept at figure-fouring with the legs. He figure-4'd Ishikawa body forcing a rope break. Ishikawa was able to pancake him on a takedown, but instead of taking his back, he shot the half (it always amuses me that of all things is in Michael Cole's lexicon) and went for a top wristlock or armbreaker (cant remember) forcing the rope break. Ishikawa up 2-1 on points in my head, but there is no scoring. Greco pancakes Ishikawa and forces a break with a figure-4 on the arm/crossface combo. Ishikawa throws Greco in a desperation attempt, but this flashy move has no effect on the All-Man Carl Greco. You, young whippersnappers and your confabbed suplexes! Greco vines a figure-4 on the arm and bars Ishikawa's arm, but still can't wrangle a submission. Ishikawa is able to get a heel hook evening it up 3-3 going into the home stretch. The time calls were getting closer in frequency I thought. Was this nearing a draw? As the two stand up from a tussle on the mat that goes nowhere it looks like Greco grabs a cravat or 3/4 facelock and Ishikawa submits. The work in this match is all struggle. It is gritty and nasty. I'd be curious if you could get this by an MMA expert's smell test. I mean if Volk Han/Tamura RINGS matches are still listed as shoots these workers can still hoodwink some people. Of all the shoot-style matches, I thought this one was the most realistic, but also the least dramatic. I like mat wrestling more than most, but still does not do enough for me to warrant a high ranking. ****

[fxnj]

Been on a shoot style matwork kick lately so this was pretty much my match. I don't think the easy flowing grappling style on display here would fool many MMA fans, but it is still pretty beautiful to see. It seemed like Greco kept taking Ishikawa's back and going for a choke, but Ishikawa's kept finding ways to slip through and capitalize on openings. I kept looking for Greco to get in a body triangle, so I popped when he finally got it in during the 2nd half. Ishikawa sold the exhaustion as Greco kept trying to choke him out, but I think that may been partly playing possum as he usually seemed to find a way to gain the upper hand whenever Greco pounced on him afterwards. I'm surprised no one has commented on how great the finishing stretch was. Shit was just epic with them both giving up their rope breaks and going hard on each other. Loved Ishikawa's string of submission attempts, especially him nearly choking out a frustrated Greco after he had been choked out himself so many times throughout the rest of the match. Greco weathers the storm, though, and gets the win with a cravat. Kind of funny a classic pro wrestling hold got the win for the MMA fighter over the pro wrestler after all his MMA stuff didn't work. ****1/2

[superkix]

For fifteen minutes -- no strikes, one suplex, lots of grappletime. Greco's swift and sneaky, able to evade a lot of Ishikawa's gruff old man attempts. They're both largely looking for chokes with Greco quick to apply the leg scissors. When Greco tries for the out-of-nowhere leg takedown, Ishikawa's able to snag an arm with his legs and get the cross kneebar on but Greco uses a rope break. Ishikawa throws Greco with a German suplex but can't capitalize as Carl's able to put him in a swanky scissored armbar and then a front necklock to force him to the ropes. The way Greco cranks his legs around Ishikawa's neck during the follow-up guillotine is awesome but the veteran grabs an arm and lays back, forcing Greco back to the ropes. They stand, they mutually grab the ropes because they want this to end, and the last couple of minutes are about as aggressive as this match gets, with lots of cool holds and slip outs. In the end, Greco cinches in a cravate and picks up the impressive win over Ishikawa. A matwork wet dream.

[9 Corpses Hang in the Mist]

This was beautiful and I feel completely secure in my sexuality saying that about two men in their underwear grabbing and rubbing against each other for 15 minutes.  I wish today's modern 'grapplefuck' wrestlers would take direct inspiration from matches like this.

[cactus]

I didn't even think I was much of a matwork guy until I watched this. Carl Greco is everything Kurt Angle thinks he is. He's more of an MMA-style grappler than Ishikawa is, who could be described as a Battlarts traditionalist. This was built entirely around the ground game and they kept it gripping for 15 whole minutes. This was two half-naked lads going at it in front of barely 200 people and they managed to keep me on the edge of my seat, with my jaw firmly on the ground the entire time.  Every transition opened the door for more possibilities. Not a single strike was thrown here and only one suplex was landed. Both guys volunteering to give up their final rope break was a badass move. My favourite Battlarts match! ★★★★★