[2000-01-30-BattlARTS] Yuki Ishikawa & Mohammed Yone vs Alexander Otsuka & Carl Greco

[soup23]

Another busy day for Korakuen. Can someone clarify who this was that comes out before hand? I want to say young Fedor but I don’t want to embarrass myself if I was wrong. Yone in this setting continues to amuse me given his huge afro and overall character later. Ishikawa and Otsuka start things off which is ok with me always. Ishikawa gains the advantages and we get the big running knee from the entranceway from Yone. Ishikawa can make the most basic moves like a half crab look painful as fuck. I love Otsuka grabbing the ankle pick from the crab position to gain the advantage. Ishikawa puts Greco in a bow and arrow and Otsuka comes in and casually kicks him right in the balls to break that. Greco is selling the leg damage greatly hopping around. Yone tries to get in on the carnage but gets taken over. He fires back with a really heated exchange vs. Otsuka. Otsuka continues to be someone that never disappoints as he is an animal in this match. Ishikawa really brutalizes Greco and gets hi in a choke. Greco learned from Otsuka and uses the ankle pick again to break out of the rear naked choke. Yone gets cleared through a row of chairs. Otsuka saves Greco again with a German on Ishikawa and now Greco is looking for a choke. Ishikawa is able to reverse this again and Otsuka is neutralized by Yone forcing Greco to tap. It looks like we got about 5 minutes cut here given the time at the finish but I really liked what we saw and it told a clear hierarchy and mixed in some exciting submissions and strikes into the action. ***1/4

[Jetlag]

Another busy day for Korakuen. Can someone clarify who this was that comes out before hand? I want to say young Fedor but I don’t want to embarrass myself if I was wrong.

 

Igor Vovchanchyn. Otsuka had just battled him in PRIDE.

 

How many times can you run a permutation of the same match and get something good? Well, I'd assume many many times, as long as you stick to what works for you, but that wasn't the case here. Yone took up a portion of the match, and that guy is so hit and miss. He can be pretty enjoyable when he sticks to reckless kicks and lariats, but his other signature moves kind of stink and he also likes to do irritating no selling. There was also barely any matwork, so Greco didn't really get to do what he does best. There was some stiffness and clubbering, but the match had that weird semi-comedic feel undercard BattlARTS matches sometimes have. Geco even did a Fargo Strut at one point. You had the stiffness and clubbering and neck-crushing suplex moves aswell as a particularily twisty submission to keep you entertained throughout, but I was hoping for a few more "pure" bits.

[soup23]

 

Another busy day for Korakuen. Can someone clarify who this was that comes out before hand? I want to say young Fedor but I don’t want to embarrass myself if I was wrong.

 

Igor Vovchanchyn. Otsuka had just battled him in PRIDE.

 

How many times can you run a permutation of the same match and get something good? Well, I'd assume many many times, as long as you stick to what works for you, but that wasn't the case here. Yone took up a portion of the match, and that guy is so hit and miss. He can be pretty enjoyable when he sticks to reckless kicks and lariats, but his other signature moves kind of stink and he also likes to do irritating no selling. There was also barely any matwork, so Greco didn't really get to do what he does best. There was some stiffness and clubbering, but the match had that weird semi-comedic feel undercard BattlARTS matches sometimes have. Geco even did a Fargo Strut at one point. You had the stiffness and clubbering and neck-crushing suplex moves aswell as a particularily twisty submission to keep you entertained throughout, but I was hoping for a few more "pure" bits.

 

 

Thanks Jetlag, that explains him and Otsuka giving each other the staredown.

 

I just looked up his record and him and Otsuka had the PRIDE match this same day???? That is nuts.

[Loss]

I think it's impossible to have Ishikawa, Greco and Otsuka in the same match and not have something good, but this was disappointing considering the calibre of guys in the match. It wasn't really distinctly BattlARTS either. I felt like this could have just as easily happened in New Japan. I did enjoy Greco's leg selling and thought that was going somewhere, then it was kind of abandoned by everyone. It's a weird contrast to see guys brawling outside the ring and knocking over chairs while the guys inside are rolling around on the mat working to a submission finish. For matches from January 30 that we don't have complete that involve lots of matwork, the LCO vs LCO tag in ARSION blows this away.

[Robert S]

 

 

Another busy day for Korakuen. Can someone clarify who this was that comes out before hand? I want to say young Fedor but I don’t want to embarrass myself if I was wrong.

 

Igor Vovchanchyn. Otsuka had just battled him in PRIDE.

 

How many times can you run a permutation of the same match and get something good? Well, I'd assume many many times, as long as you stick to what works for you, but that wasn't the case here. Yone took up a portion of the match, and that guy is so hit and miss. He can be pretty enjoyable when he sticks to reckless kicks and lariats, but his other signature moves kind of stink and he also likes to do irritating no selling. There was also barely any matwork, so Greco didn't really get to do what he does best. There was some stiffness and clubbering, but the match had that weird semi-comedic feel undercard BattlARTS matches sometimes have. Geco even did a Fargo Strut at one point. You had the stiffness and clubbering and neck-crushing suplex moves aswell as a particularily twisty submission to keep you entertained throughout, but I was hoping for a few more "pure" bits.

 

 

Thanks Jetlag, that explains him and Otsuka giving each other the staredown.

 

I just looked up his record and him and Otsuka had the PRIDE match this same day???? That is nuts.

 

Are you sure that 1/30 is not just the airdate of this show? Vovchanchyn's appearance looked like a hype-up for the PRIDE fight to me.

 

Anyway: what is Sasuke doing there doing ring-boy duties? Or is that Sasuke the Great (Orihara)?

[soup23]

Possible 1/30 was the air date. I am not sure but cagematch has the event as 1/30.

[Loss]

I've seen 1/30 in multiple places. I'm as sure as I possibly can be that's correct.

[ohtani's jacket]

This was a decent match. I didn't think it was dramatically different from the tag matches that BattlARTS used to ruin in its early years. There was some clipping and Yone isn't very good, but any time you get to see Ishikawa work with Greco it's a must-see proposition. More mat wrestling would have been good but tag matches aren't really made for mat wrestling. This gets a pass mark from me

[cramerjason87]

Yone killed the flow with his no selling. Greco and Ishikawa had good intensity in their sequences. I'm assuming the mat work was edited out in the clipping. Couldn't engage with this match at all.

[Moonsault Marvin]

I wish this wasn't clipped. I wanted to see more of that leglock exchange between Ishikawa and Otsuka. The match didn't really come together, but Ishikawa is always fun to watch.

[superkix]

The best thing Yone does in this match is walk out wearing a "I Heart M.Y." shirt. This was a pretty fun BattlArts exhibition with comedy undertones that wasn't really heading anywhere but to have fun. I mean, Ishikawa worked with a smile half the time. I can always watch Ishikawa on the mat and his scrappy exchanges with the spastic Greco. Really like Ishikawa's backchops. Otsuka's such a stud -- he really should've been a bigger star somewhere. He smacks Yone around, dumps him with a German, hits a great-looking seated dropkick in the corner. I agree that it would've been nice to see more of the grounded opening between Ishikawa and Otsuka but there some fun BatiBati spots and a cool finish -- a pretty harmless tag match, in my opinion.

[Edwin]

Those Yuki Ishikawa and Carl Greco exchanges were fantastic. Greco coming in like a house on a fire and taking Ishikawa down and Gator rolling him was great. I really dislike Yone here. His running halfway from Korakuen Hall on the floor for a lame knee, his popping up after having gotten dropped on his head, his lack of facial expressions, etc. made him really unlikeable here and that dragged this down. Greco's double armbar was fantastic. Otsuka would use the same move in the same year to tap out Mike Bourke in PRIDE. Aside from the Greco and Ishikawa exchanges, this was very underwhelming.

[Makai Club #1]

This sounded really appealing on pap. Otsuka is a name I've seen little of but enough to know I like him. Ishikawa speaks for himself and Yone I love from NOAH. This was good. It's always wild seeing these types of matches being done in tag form and sometimes they work and sometimes they can be awkward but this was the former. They utilizes the tags well and did some great saves (which replaces pin saves). Greco and Ishikawa had some cracking exchanges on the mat, like where Greco was on top with Ishikawa leathering him with slaps. Yone showed some great fire even when taking the brunt of the offence. Otsuka offered his spunky offence as well. ***3/4