[1996-12-25-BattlARTS] Katsumi Usuda & Takeshi Ono vs Daisuke Ikeda & Alexander Otsuka

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I like this a lot, and it's cool to see Ono involve in just the few matches he has on this set. All four look really good, and there are too many great kicks to count. Usuda also looks awesome, like a guy who could translate to NJ juniors without making too many adjustments to his style and have some excellent matches. Ikeda's body punches on Ono look great. I also love Otsuka and Ikeda doing a spike powerbomb and it not looking the slightest bit out of place amongst the other more shooty, mat-based stuff. Pretty amazing match, maybe the best BattlARTS of the year.

[PeteF3]

Fine match with a number of twists and turns. Ono and Usuda are sort of the heel team (as designated by their evil black leather jackets) yet it's Ono who's sort of in-peril for most of this. Still, they do a few classic heel staples like the guy on the apron leveling his opponent in the back with a kick as he gets too near the ropes. For the most part this is the shootiest-looking BattlArts match of the set, at least until Otsuka busts out the giant swing and elbow drop. AJPW-style finish in a shoot setting with saves and cut-offs from saves, before Ono CREAMS Otsuka with a high kick for the knockout. BattlArts isn't quite as fresh as it was when I first saw it earlier in the project, so I don't know if I rank this as the promotion's #1 match for the year but it definitely feels like a promotion to watch in the future.

[Jetlag]

Man, BattlARTS wasn't afraid to bring the badass shootstyle in 1996. The rhythm of this wasn't exactly great, but the pace was frantic and the match felt like it could end at any moment, which is exactly what you want from a shootstyle brawl. The Ono/Usuda team constantly going back to heel moves despite being able to hold their own doing pure wrestling was a nice touch, as was Team Taco EXPLODING and the AJPW flavour that some of the interference/double teams had. The first half had lot of great mat moves, while second half was intense as hell with stiff shots raining down. Everything after Ono tanged Otsuka up in the ropes was just fantastic, intensely violent pro wrestling and the finish was a finish. Easily one of the better 90s BattlARTS tags.

[soup23]

A very good Bat Bat tag match. Usuda and Ono pushed the pace against Ishikawa and Otsuka was seen as one of the main pillars within the match. Ishikawa gave more to especially Usuda than I would have imagined. I didn't think this ever reached great levels but it was a good match to see the BattlARTS hierarchy at the time and the development of the underdogs within this match. ***1/2