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[1997-01-27] Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda vs Yuki Ishikawa & Takeshi Ono


Phil Schneider

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This was a battle of four all time greats at their absolute athletic peaks. All of these guys are still great wrestlers when they show up, but their style has slowed down a bit as they have moved into their 40s. Here they are all in their mid 20s and the exchanges are so much faster and explosive without surrendering any of the chilling violence. The opening of this match is a great example of the brilliance of this style, Usuda and Ono have this lighting quick intricate exchange of kneebar counters, which was ended by Ikeda running in and kicking Ono's head into the fourth row. A Sunday of skill and speed with a cherry of brutality on top. The match continues on that vein, with great exchanges by all of the participants, with all four looking great. Ikeda throws some of his classic crowbar lariats along with nasty kicks and some really good desperate leg selling. Really the kind of match that isn't done anywhere anymore, and it was such a pleasure to watch.

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  • 5 months later...

Whole show is here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaGAfKPerZQ (I think this is filmed a little differently than the version that is on the Best Of set)

This was some truely high end BattlARTS tag team action. The first thing you notice is how on point all 4 guys on the mat were. The opening exchanges felt slick like U-Style matwork and always highly competitive, with the violence upgraded to BattlARTS standards. The brutality was of the charts here. The "tag team partners running in to make the save from a submission" where some of the must vicious I've seen and felt like PRIDE ground stomping, Ikeda at one point started throwing mule kicks on the ground, and Usuda and Ono threw some kicks that looked like nobody would get up from them. Man I don't even care whether there was a story or anything this match because the work was so frantic, hard fought and believable and sold so, so well I was 100% engrossed the entire time. The match also felt like it could end at anytime: at one point, Ikeda got his leg worked over with a few kicks from Ono and nice holds by Ishikawa (note the teamwork there), then Ono landed a series of skull crushing kicks on him. Ikeda believably beat the count, but his entire body language was such that you could see he was moments away from being finished, so he did the only reasonable thing and quietly slipped to his corner to tag out before collapsing like a broken man. That may have been my favourite moment of the match and it made the finish feel even sweeter where it feels like Ishikawa and Ono have the match in the bag and Ikeda just comes in and turns Ono's lights out to set up the finish. All 4 guys had career highlight performances, Ono did some stuff on the mat only he could do, Usuda stepped up big time and Ishikawa and Ikeda had some incredible exchanges together. Great, great match and a really compelling fusion of top notch shootstyle matwork, brawling and top level stiffness.

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  • 1 year later...

This time, that little shitbag Ono is on Ishikawa's team but he isn't quite as obnoxious. In fact, he and Usuda put on quite the mat show with their scrambling and reversals. Usuda is super stiff with his kicks, to both Ono and Ishikawa, and as expected, Ikeda and Ishikawa are trying to kill each other. Early on, Ikeda delivers this beautiful takedown and immediately kicks Ishikawa in the face but Ishikawa being the man still manages to snag the leg and send Ikeda to the ropes. Usuda's pretty much in the Ono role for this match, kicking Ikeda from the apron, being a dick. Ono kicks him in the face and tries for an armbar but Usuda slickly maneuvers into a kneebar, and then they slip-and-slide around the canvas looking for an advantage. Ono and Ishikawa try to destroy Ikeda's leg toward the end of the match, with Ono landing some big head kicks to Ikeda in the corner but still peppering the leg with low kicks. But in the end, Ikeda obliterates Ishikawa with a brutal clubbing lariat and Usuda comes in with the choke sleeper, picking up the submission. Great stuff.

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  • Loss changed the title to [1997-01-27] Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda vs Yuki Ishikawa & Takeshi Ono

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