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This was a super cool match and another solid addition to the series. It kicks off with a couple of dope suplexes, Ishikawa trying to wrangle Ikeda on the mat, and Ikeda punching his way out of trouble. The contest is pretty even throughout the first part of the match, with them trading strikes and trying to find an opening on the mat. There is this great little spat exchange that ends in Ikeda lariating the shit out of Ishikawa. I thought Ishikawa was really good here, as far as his presence on the ground -- for example, when he has to use a rope break on the rear naked choke, he immediately grabs Ikeda’s arm after the break. Also, Ikeda works Ishikawa’s nose at one point, which rules. After he takes out Ishikawa’s knee with a dropkick, there’s some terrific selling from Ishikawa as he tries to stay in the corner. Just really good grunty groundwork and instinctive wrestling -- like when Ikeda struggles against the German suplex, Ishikawa just quickly grabs a choke instead. By the end of it, they’re both exhausted, a common trope of this series, and they clobber each other until Ikeda lariats the side of Ishikawa’s head and takes him back down with the choke sleeper for the submission.

Yeah, this was a pretty great contest with Inoki trying to hold his own on the mat with Fujiwara. One thing I really like about this match is how the suplexes look like a struggle to deliver, which adds more of an organic element to the match. I mean, Fujiwara powers Inoki over into almost a fisherman buster. Fujiwara holding his ground against Inoki's headbutts was great, and then when Inoki pisses off the UWF crew with that low kick. The final elbow counter to Fujiwara's headbutt was awesome, which leads to Inoki picking up the submission win via the sleeper.

What a draw. They continue to play off their respective roles and early on, Ishikawa shows Ikeda that he can’t survive off kicks alone, taking him to the ropes…and then immediately afterward, Ikeda blasts him with a boot to the forehead. They transition from holds to strikes to suplexes, with Ishikawa utilizing some nifty counters. Then it sort of settles back down on the mat, with Ikeda mostly staying on the arm, occasionally straight punching Ishikawa in the face to set up an armbar. I really liked Ishikawa using the headbutts to get Ikeda off the ropes for the German suplex. And then, of course, Ikeda using the full nelson and almost deadlifting Ishikawa up into a dragon suplex. During the final minutes, they start with the big strikes to try and finish it, and you can tell they’re both completely exhausted, especially Ishikawa, who can’t manage much of anything on the mat. He hits a fisherman buster in desperation, trying to secure the arm, but Ikeda rolls to the ropes as the time limit expires. Great stuff.

This match felt like a swan song to the science of 1970’s mat-based wrestling, executed by two of the style’s greatest professors. My only grumble is the time limit draw, as it seemed like these two could go at it for another half hour. Bock sticks like glue to Robinson’s arm early on, and even after Billy is able to counter with an cobra twist and start in on the neck, Bock holds on with the hip toss attempt and re-gains control of the arm. As proficient as Robinson is here, Bock’s performance really elevates this match to the next level. I loved the extended headlock sequence, with Bock using various means to escape only to get caught again with the headlock. He brings a surliness to the match, the way he kinks around Billy’s ankle when he’s got him in a hold, or the heat behind the slap to Billy’s face. The bombs get bigger as Robinson tries putting Bock away but when he delivers the second backbreaker, he injures his knee and Nick smells the blood, attacking with the spinning toehold and figure-four leglock. When Billy tries to fight out with a bodyslam, his knee gives out and Bock nearly pins him with the cover. As the time limit expires, the two are still slugging it out, anxious to end it. Great great stuff.

This had about two or three minutes clipped but it was still quite the doozy, as expected. Here, they establish their respective roles, with Ishikawa being the aggressive matworker and Ikeda the gruff striker. Ishikawa uses some cool suplex throws, including a deadlift belly-to-belly and a pretty dope capture suplex counter. I loved Ishikawa’s grumpy foot stomps in the corner, and also the the way he steps over into the single leg crab. He starts peppering Ikeda with these big face slaps and punches and then Ikeda destroys him with a lariat, followed by some nasty knees for a knockdown. After a big headbutt to the back of the head, Ishikawa chokes out Ikeda for the win.

What a little banger of a match. Bulked up Nomura has been doing his best to channel Akira Maeda, incorporating things like the capture and half hatch suplex, and the crossface chickenwing, in addition to his stiff kicks. Here, he comes out of the gate throwing kicks, catching Aoki upside the head with one of them. They scramble around the mat a bit, with Aoki more than holding his own. The strike exchanged were snug and fiery, and we get some of that signature bad boy attitude from Nomura. At one point, he has Aoki in a sleeper, doesn't immediately let go in the ropes, Aoki pops him in the forehead with a kick, and Nomura gets pissy with him. I thought Aoki did a good job of playing the underdog and getting in his moments to shine, including folding Nomura in turn with a release German. They heat up the final strike exchange before Nomura hits the headbutt and submits him with the cross armlock.

This wasn’t anything too special. Fujinami is much slicker on the mat than Rocco but the opening touch-and-go was perfectly fine and Fujinami has some beautiful arm drags. They were evenly matched throughout, although Rocco took the advantage with his toe kicks and by applying the Romero Special. He hit a crossbody from the corner for a two count but Fujinami was able to score the win with the Japanese roll leg clutch to retain the title. A decent contest but not as good as their rematch from 1980.

While I’ve seen some of Hara’s later stuff as a heavyweight, this was the first time I'd ever seen/heard of Mile Zrno. Visually, it was a cool match but there wasn’t much substance. The matwork was interesting for the most part but not very engaging. The submissions never really felt dangerous, even when Zrno was lying back with the cross armbreaker fully applied and Hara isn’t making much of an effort to escape or counter. The lackluster selling on Zrno’s part didn’t help flesh this thing out but again, a neat-looking match. Hara’s offense looked great, his seamless side suplex into the pin, his snazzy armdrag, his double arm suplex to win the second fall and the finish to the match, with Hara catching Mile across his shoulders before delivering that exaggerated Samoan drop. I liked Mile’s legwork during the second fall, with his leaping leg drops, elbow drops, and somersault rolls. He had a beautiful leg trap takedown but there was no payoff. A swanky exhibition but little else beyond that.

This was pretty fun, with a good back-and-forth to open, neither man gaining the advantage. Then they start picking up speed, getting a little flashier -- Marufuji hitting an Asai moonsault and Sasuke a no hands somersault plancha to the outside. I liked the nearfalls off of some of the cradles and roll-ups, which instilled a little hope that Marufuji could pull off the win. He's able to deliver the Shiranui but it's not enough and after missing a splash, Sasuke puts him away with the awesome Thunder Fire Powerbomb.

This match combines the best of their previous encounters from 1978, incorporating the suave matwork, the fiery strikes, cool paybacks and callbacks, and a little extra somethin’ somethin’ from Ryuma Go. Fujinami heats up Go with a slap right out of the gate and Go’s beside himself, tossing Fujinami out of the ring. There’s a great sequence with Go grounding Fujinami with a vicious-looking cravate takedown and Fujinami bridging out to snapmare Go. Once again, Go tries slapping his way out of a leglock but only succeeds in pissing off Fujinami, a recurring theme, in which Fujinami lays into him with hard slaps and kicks. In general, Fujinami treats Go like he’s beneath him, at one point shoving him out of the ring while he’s running the ropes. Awesome strikes throughout, especially those headbutts from Go. After Go cuts Fujinami up top, dropkicking him out of the ring, he goes high-risk with a diving body press – only to be followed up shortly after by a plancha from Fujinami. Terrific false finish off of the German suplex, with Fujinami just barely getting a foot on the rope, before Go gets the upset victory with the backslide.

This is, in my opinion, the weakest match of the 1977 trilogy but still a good match. Standard first fall with jockeying for control, Robinson whipping out a few neckbreakers, and Jumbo getting in little spurts of offense here and there, eventually pinning Robinson after a belly-to-back suplex. The referee is the worst. Jumbo works a headlock through most of the second fall and while it isn't quite as engaging as Robinson doing it, it's still fun to see Robinson headstand his way out of it only to get caught back on the mat. In the end, Robinson drops Jumbo with a couple of backbreakers and submits him with the crab hold. Billy continues looking for the crab hold into the third fall, hitting a pretty sweet side suplex at one point. The end is a mess, as Jumbo hits the double arm suplex and puts Billy in his own crab hold...only for Abby the Butcher to interfere and stick Robinson with a fork, allowing Jumbo to hit the dropkick for the win.

The final card for 2/25's "HIGH KICK FANTASIA" has been released and features the promotion's first six-man tag match, in addition to several other singles matches. KIMERA "HIGH KICK FANTASIA", 2/25 Ariake Colosseum 1. Strong Rules: Shiro Koshinaka, Shinjiro Ohtani & Akira Nogami & vs. Yuki Ishikawa, Yoshinari Ogawa & Osamu Nishimura 2. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament - Semi-Final: Chris Jericho & Lance Storm vs. Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai 3. Hybrid Rules: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yusuke Fuke 4. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament - Semi-Final: Dan Severn & Bart Vale vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Yuji Nagata 5. Catch Rules: Grom Zaza vs. Kazuo Takahashi 6. Hybrid Rules: Dick Vrij vs. Tatsuo Nakano 7. Strong Rules: Bob Backlund vs. Minoru Suzuki 8. Catch Rules: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Masakatu Funaki 9. Hybrid Rules: Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 10. KIMERA Jr. Heavyweight Title - Strong Rules: Jushin “Thunder” Liger vs. Masanobu Fuchi 11. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament - Final: 12. KIMERA Heavyweight Title - Strong Rules: Vader © vs. Hiroshi Hase

And trash trash of course. Generated by trash people.

The world is not trash. People are trash.

The second in their March '77 trilogy and the longest, drawing at 60:00. Although it's not as cohesive or memorable as their 3/5 match, it's still as good as you'd expect. The build to Billy's double arm suplex is a fun little narrative that threads its way through the match. Robinson stays in control through much of the first fall, working the headlock, transitioning to the back with suplexes and stretches, finally switching to the leg before Jumbo pins Billy following his own double arm suplex! Jumbo stays on Billy's back during the second fall, whipping him into corners (sold brilliantly by Billy) and putting him in a crab hold -- but Billy spikes Jumbo with a killer cradle tombstone to even the score. In the final fall, Billy keeps targeting the neck with a neckbreaker and another tombstone, finally hitting the double arm suplex to no avail. Things break down toward the end, as they engage in back-and-forth spats and spill out of the ring often. The final stretch with a frustrating Jumbo trying everything to finish off Billy, including TWO double arm suplexes, was great, and even after the bell rings the draw, Jumbo's pissed and still attacking Billy. What a series so far.

Robinson’s a lot of fun to watch in the ring, whether he’s schooling someone on the canvas or playing defense, looking for a way out of a predicament. Seems like a rare feat to be able to make a seven minute headlock struggle captivating but Robinson is able to pull it off masterfully. I go back to this often but like any good novel, I appreciate the little attentions to detail. The movements, the strategy, the methods of approach that add a sense of intelligence to any pro-wrestling match. Little things like Billy’s hip attack to stun Jumbo before taking him over with the hip toss, or figuring out a way to escape a side headlock that is unique and effective, not doing the same flopping thing over and over again.The 1970’s stuff feels animated at times, especially in some of Robinson’s more theatrical bumping around and selling, but it’s the matwork and counterwork that keeps me engaged, even if there’s no long-term continuity to it. During the first fall, Robinson is relentless with his attacking Jumbo’s neck, throwing his weight onto it, delivering a vicious neckbreaker. There’s an unstable nature to the match, to a lot of these early Japanese match-ups in general, with the teased strikes and suplexes, boiling up to an explosive third fall. After Jumbo wins the first fall following a pair of running bulldogs, he stays on Billy’s neck to start the second fall, leading to the prolonged headlock struggle with some really neat reversal attempts, like Robinson bridging with the chancery hold. Thesecond fall is a slow burn but it picks up, as Billy’s able to find his way out with a backdrop and evens the score with a backbreaker. He keeps after Jumbo’s back with a side suplex, a second backbreaker and a crab hold, and when that doesn’t get him to submit, Robinson begins chopping his neck out of frustration. Loved that. Jumbo fires off some suplexes but Robinson, who had managed to slink through much of this match, comes away with the victory after countering the O'Connor Roll. Awesome match, one of my very favorites from the 70's.

Here's the direct LINK. https://fightingnetworkfriends.podiant.co/e/360b5feae46b60/ to stream, or subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also search us on Apple Podcasts. FNF 013: The Violent Ballad of Ikeda & Ishikawa We are back to two and back talkin' about FEUDS! We FINALLY delve pretty deep into BattlArts here by talking the signature feud - Yuki Ishikawa and Daisuke Ikeda, wrecking each other's faces.There is also an ALL TIME CLASSIC in the 3rd segment. Topics discussed: - Brennan's Flu - Andy's new employment! - What we've been watching in our own lives (not much!) - Talkin' Tetsujin and EURO SHOOT Vs. Shoot Style - Brennan is in The Atomic Elbow zine - go buy a copy. & More Matches: We are covering 8 of the 12ish singles matches Ishikawa and Ikeda have had in their career and most are available on our Youtube page. 1/17/18 - BJW - Takuya Nomura vs. Fuminori Abe 12/11/17 - Defiant Wrestling - David Starr vs. Chris Brookes 6/12/86 - NJPW - Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Akira Maeda 3/20/92 - PWFG - Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Bart Vale Youtube Playlist: http://tinyurl.com/fnf013 Follow us on Twitter: @fightfriends @trillyrobinson @bren_patrick Email at: [email protected] Instagram: @fightnetworkfriends Youtube at: http://tinyurl.com/FightFriends

This was a fun squash and Kikuchi's at his best when he's playing the fired up underdog. Takayama no selling the leg lariats and then destroying Kikuchi was great, as well as Kikuchi's optimistic armwork, including the hanging armbar. Not quite as brutal as I was anticipating but still a dominant performance from Takayama.

Robinson is awesome here. Not to sell Baba short, he was great too, but Robinson’s performance was fantastic. From the apprehension he conveys about locking up with Baba, maintaining a certain distance and treating him like a major threat throughout the match, to his movements, his takedowns, his quick snakebite strikes to the legs. He tries to overwhelm Baba rather than get tangled up in his spindly limbs, chopping him down at the knees. I’ve said it a million times but it’s the little things that add up and Robinson is a master at incorporating them into his matches. The way he pushes his weight back onto Baba’s chinlock in order to pin his shoulders to the mat, or cranking Baba’s leg over his own head, using it as a battering ram to weaken the leg. When Baba realizes Billy’s not going to tie up with him, he starts slapping and chopping away, picking up the first fall after a backdrop. Robinson sells Baba’s strikes so well, making them look extra painful, trying in vain to block them. He starts firing back on offense, hitting a gnarly neckbreaker, and when he’s unsuccessful with the double arm suplex attempts, Robinson takes out the leg and quickly submits Baba with a single leg crab to even the score. And he doesn’t let up, hitting leg enziguris at the start of the third fall, once again trying to submit him before Baba builds any momentum. At one point, Billy drapes Baba’s leg on the ropes and executes a tope onto the leg through the ropes, causing them both to tumble outside! By the end of this thing, Robinson is delivering everything he can in his arsenal to down the giant, including an impressive backbreaker, but when he runs into the neckbreaker drop, it’s game over, emphasizing once again the danger that is Baba and how every move could be the last.

Prime time Terry with his Looney Tunes selling and Amarillo, Texas-style, forearm-grinding limbwork. Terrific first fall, as Terry controls early on, working the arm and building to Tsuruta’s inevitable escape, and when it happens, you can see just how hard Funk fought to keep Jumbo in check as he’s out of breath and sweaty. Now Jumbo’s got Terry on the Rocks and I love Funk working to shake Tsuruta off, firing off knight-edged chops and trying to toss him over the ropes only for Jumbo to hold onto the arm and bring him back into the ring. Funk tries to find an opening with an atomic drop but Jumbo scouts the elbow drop and arm drags him back down to the mat, holding on. Just a great sense of struggle throughout. Funk finally delivers the double arm suplex but Jumbo’s too fast for him and pins him with the sunset flip. Between falls, Terry is selling the arm on the outside and back inside the ring, he knows he has to put some distance between he and Jumbo, so Funk cheap shots him during the lock up. Terry focuses on the neck for the second fall, hitting a swinging neckbreaker and a piledriver before he goes to the sleeper hold. The finish here is awesome, as they fight over an abdominal stretch which leads to Funk scoring the second fall following his rolling cradle. By the third fall, the tactical approach is thrown out the window and two go back-and-forth trading suplexes. With all these big bombs being thrown, I thought the finish of the match was a little disappointing, as Terry catches Jumbo throat-first on the ropes and pins him, but it did the trick. Awesome match and build to that explosive third fall.

The first fall of this match is about fifteen of the most beautiful minutes of professional wrestling I’ve seen, combining Destroyer’s methodical old-school approach with the lucha elegante matwork of Máscaras. With Destroyer, every movement has significance, every strain or expression conveys meaning. The transitions, reversals, counters, evasions, and takedowns are all so masterfully executed, not only from Destroyer, but Máscaras as well, who seems more in his element on the canvas than pinballing around the ring. While "Woken Twitter" is quick to proclaim wrestling as an art form over an impressive but largely meaningless aerobatics display, the way these two seamlessly thread their exchanges together throughout the match is a testament to the thought and sensibility put into the telling of a clever, believable in-ring story. There’s something special about the way Destroyer rolls the audience around the palm of his hand like putty, whether it’s his comical “No-no-no-no-no-no”s during Mil’s standing surfboard or the fear he instills when he’s attacking the leg to set-up the figure-four leglock. During the first fall, Máscaras seems as if he's in a perpetual state of change, the way he watches for variations in Destroyer’s step, reading his energy levels and transitioning accordingly if something isn’t working. The sequences are, again, a thing of beauty. As they head toward the finish of the first fall, Máscaras starts to build some momentum as his speed overwhelms Destroyer but when he slips up, Destroyer takes full advantage, driving him headfirst into the corner and following up with the knees to the neck to take the first fall. He lives up to his namesake by continuing to destroy Mil’s neck with elbows, knees, and a neckbreaker into the second fall, which didn't really work, out, as Mil ends up taking the second fall via a flying crossbody. The third fall brings back the fear of the figure-four as Destroyer goes after Mil’s leg a wild dog and when he finally locks it in, the arena freaks the fuck out. Destroyer built such a great atmosphere around it and this final fall features some of Máscaras best selling. Mil gets in plenty of offense with his flying around and his scoop-style suplexes, and the non-finish wasn’t ideal but it also kept in tune with the general unpredictability of the match.

Yatsu is such a heel here, it's terrific, and Nakano shows a ton of fire, coming out of the gate against Fuyuki like he's got a lit bottle rocket up his ass. When Fuyuki's had it with him, he pummels him with pissy little headbutts. Tenryu gets in there and chops the hell out of him and when the kid smacks back at Tenryu, Tenryu promptly shuts him down in grumpy fashion. Loved how Nakano pounds away at Tenryu after he breaks the pin attempt. The hate between Yatsu and Tenryu is on full display. When Fuyuji heats up on offense and gets the big tag to Tenryu, Tenryu murder chops Nakano to set up the diving back elbow drop but Yatsu pulls Nakano out of the way to massive heat from the fans. Tenryu's still able to hit it a bit later but Yatsu breaks up the count. Then he brings out the chair, attacking Fuyuki and Tenryu. The fans are going nuts as Fuyuki sacrifices his body to protect Tenryu from the chairshots. Then Yatsu busts Fuyuki open with a headshit and the fans have had it, throwing garbage into the ring. But in the end, Tenryu is able to lariat Nakano and deliver the powerbomb to send the fans home happy.

This had some fun moments, and I especially thought Sano's performance here was great. Really dug the opening exchange between he and Usuda. Ken is a pretty good scrappy underdog, although unrefined and some of his exchanges with Taira were clutzy. But I liked whenever Taira was playing the dick and goading him on. Sano showed off a bunch during this match, with some big bombs and swanky submission holds on Ken, including a cool double arm hold and the Romero Special into the dragon sleeper. Usuda/Taira didn't have great chemistry but Usuda in general looked good here. Ken firing up after he hits the spear on Sano was good stuff and then Sano destroys him with that powerbomb and really wants to submit him with the crab hold, trying three times before finally succeeding.

This build to Murakami/Ishikawa has been fantastic and while their interactions here were an obvious highlight, I really enjoyed the feisty exchanges between Murakami and Malenko. Nagai was fine here, landing some pretty stiff kicks and throwing some big bombs to bring in Murakami for the finish. And that finish was great, as Murakami just fucks Malenko up for the KO, which leads to the post-match scuffle. Fun stuff.

As Minoru Suzuki and Masakatsu Funaki continue on their journey of 'mastering' the different styles, the two will be in action on 2/25 against two veterans of the strong and catch styles. Suzuki will meet Bob Backlund under "Strong Rules" while Funaki will go toe-to-toe with Yoshiaki Fujiwara under "Catch Rules". And after Kazuo Yamazaki challenged Akira Maeda to a match last month, Maeda has accepted the challenge and will face Yamazaki under "Hybrid Rules" at "HIGH KICK FANTASIA". KIMERA "HIGH KICK FANTASIA", 2/25 Ariake Colosseum 1. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament - Semi-Final: Chris Jericho & Lance Storm vs. Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai 2. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament - Semi-Final: Dan Severn & Bart Vale vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Yuji Nagata 3. Strong Rules: Bob Backlund vs. Minoru Suzuki 4. Catch Rules: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Masakatu Funaki 5. Hybrid Rules: Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 6. KIMERA Jr. Heavyweight Title - Strong Rules: Jushin “Thunder” Liger vs. Masanobu Fuchi 7. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament - Final: 8. KIMERA Heavyweight Title - Strong Rules: Vader © vs. Hiroshi Hase