Yuki Ishikawa

[Reel]

I've been watching some of the matches from when he was the trainer at Santino's school, they're mostly all on youtube, and I'm not going to say they're great matches, but him slapping the shit out of random Canadian trainees is awesome. 

[elliott]

I ranked Yuki Ishikawa 58th in 2016 and I completely fucking blew it with that one. Ishikawa should be closer to the top 20. He's been since the early 90s and was never not awesome. The rivalry with Ikeda is the closest thing to Lawler vs Dundee since Lawler vs Dundee. Its not just Ikeda though. He's got classics with Carl Greco, Otsuka, Murakami. He's got the peak, the consistency the longevity. He's not my #1 but if I saw someone rank Ishikawa the best wrestler ever I'd just say "Yeah that fucking rocks." 

[NotJayTabb]

So Ishikawa was a bit of a blind spot for me before tonight's watch party, but he's someone who I'm very much going to investigate further. With all apologies to Solo Darling, Ishikawa feels like the real limb reaper, loved the way he weathered the storm in the Murakami and Kana matches, waiting for the perfect moment to grab a body part and hook them. As I said in the Jaguar Yokota thread, I can't say a definite top 100 just off a 2hr selection of matches, but if he's got more like this in his locker, he feels like a shoe-in

[elliott]

I had to jet out early unexpectedly but you can be sure that Ishikawa is the gift that keeps on giving. His earliest awesome match is from July 1992 against Kazuo Takahashi. He had an awesome match as recently as 2020 against his career rival Daisuke Ikeda. I think yall just saw the one Ikeda match. They had their first great match in 1996. Most recently in 2020. Its like the Lawler vs Dundee of Japan at this point where they just keep having great matches together. They have epic singles matches and then their tag matches against each other are reliably awesome. Other than the all time great Ikeda feud, you saw his ability to work the mat like a champ, sell on a world class level. He's got crazy longevity at this point and the peak and the variety. He's an awesome mat work but can also thrive in violent spectacles. 

He's kind of a Fujiwara or Satanico type where the more you watch and the closer you pay attention the more you come to realize that he's an all timer. He's more understated and reliant on details than overt over the top stuff. But when he does over the top its awesome too. He's kinda like if William Regal was more serious and had the resume of great matches we were always hoping for. 

[Jetlag]

Actually, Ishikawa and Ikeda had a pretty great match as early as 1994 in Michinoku Pro They matched up two more times in 1995. @Phil Schneider didn't you mention getting a tape of one of their PWFG matches?

[elliott]

Oh cool! Thank you! I gotta check out that M-Pro match! I predict they hit each other really hard

[Kadaveri]

6 hours ago, elliott said:

 I think yall just saw the one Ikeda match.

Yep the idea with the watch parties is to showcase the range of what a worker can do, I think that's a better introduction than just "here are their 5 best matches". But I do urge everyone to just watch all the Ikeda matches if they liked what they saw. They're all at least "very good".

[ohtani's jacket]

That 2020 Ikeda match is wonderful. Ishikawa has finally completed his metamorphosis into old man Fujiwara. 

[KB8]

I had Ishikawa at number 19 in 2016, but I think he makes my top 10 next time. It's not that I've necessarily learned anything new about him in the last five years; I think he's awesome now for the same reasons I thought he was awesome in 2016, it's just his volume of great matches and performances keeps going up with every new match of his that I watch. He was still amazing as of last year, so he has crazy longevity. The eternal Ikeda rivalry is obviously incredible and I'd put it up there with Tenryu/Hashimoto Lawler/Dundee, Santo/Casas, basically any all-time legendary match-up in wrestling history. Could probably count on one hand the number of wrestlers who are more - or even as - compelling when taking a beating than Ishikawa, but the real beauty of Ishikawa is how he can flip it and be the dirtiest mauling bastard on the planet just as effectively. I guess how high you'll consider ranking him will hinge on how much you like the Battlarts/FUTEN style of wrestling. If you love it then he's a top 10 contender all day.

 

YUKI ISHIKAWA YOU SHOULD WATCH:

v Kazuo Takahashi (PWFG, 7/27/97)

v Carl Greco (PWFG, 6/1/93)

v Bart Vale (PWFG, 7/21/93)

v Duane Koslowski (PWFG, 9/23/93)

w/Katsumi Usuda v Daisuke Ikeda & Carl Greco (Battlarts, 4/14/96)

w/Alexander Otsuka v Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono (Battlart, 10/30/96)

w/Takeshi Ono v Daisuke Ikeda & Alexander Otsuka (Battlarts, 1/21/97)

v Daisuke Ikeda (Battlarts, 5/27/98)

v Daisuke Ikeda (Battlarts, 8/29/99)

v Takeshi Ono (Battlarts, 6/18/00)

v Daisuke Ikeda (FUTEN, 4/24/05)

v Hiroyuki Ito (Big Mouth Loud, 4/19/06)

v Carl Greco (Battlarts, 6/1/08)

w/Alexander Otsuka & Munenori Sawa v Daisuke Ikeda, Katsumi Usuda & Super Tiger II (Battlarts, 7/16/08)

v Daisuke Ikeda (wXw, 3/7/20)

[Boss Rock]

I really dig the Murakami match.

[KB8]

I should've put at least something from the Murakami feud on that list. Because yeah, that shit was awesome and the singles match from 2000 rules (the 2001 match is good too, but not quite at the same level). 

[mjp7798]

The entire feud w/ Murakami (especially the 2000 match) completely rules.  He's a lock for my top 20. Currently my working #17.  I could absolutely see himself as a camp pick for number 1 and I'm completely game for the argument.  If this list were to account his work as a booker and his overall vision of pro wrestling then he is an easy top 5.

[CheapPop1999]

The more I've dug into Ishikawa, the more I have grown to love and appreciate what he brings, especially in BattlArts as the 90s-21st century Inoki that he always wanted to be.

Mechanically, he's obviously among the very best ever. His mat work is cerebral and intricate, but never loses its sense of real harm and technique. His striking and brawling, while not as flashy as Ikeda's punches (among the best ever) or as reckless as a Takeshi Ono punt kick, he always knows when to uncork something big and change the complexion of a match. His selling is awesome, and you get the real sense from watching him that he's a grinder, a guy who knows what's happening is hurting but embraces the suck a little bit in the pursuit of getting better.

Above all else, though, it's his personality that really shone through. Typically, I find myself siding more with Ikeda-types; snarly, menacing, heelish workers who love to harass and smack people around. Ishikawa broke that mold for me. I love his wryness and dry smirks in matches that almost show a bliss that he's even able to perform, or a pride in the company that he is built and how talented the other wrestlers are. He's even more endearing as an elder statesman, really getting to play patriarch over the empire he has built and pour into new adopters, like Thatcher, WALTER or Sawa. He just flat out rocks, and he really has come to represent a lot of what I look for in a great babyface; great connection to the audience and a never-say-die attitude that actually manifests itself in matches.

The aforementioned Murakami match from 2000 is one of the greatest main events I've ever seen, as the entire arena is deadset on Their Hero conquering this snarly dickhead monster. The place comes unglued like the Coliseum for Yuki's teases of hope spots. It's magic.

He then teams up with Murakami against Ikeda and Daisuke Sekimoto in 2007 in a whirlwind blast of a tag match, where Ishikawa experiments and tries to get a little nastier, grinning at the people almost like somebody who's never done something before trying it and being so proud of it. It's like watching somebody teach their wife how to throw a football and then seeing their face when she uncorks a perfect spiral after a few minutes of practicing. It's great.

This really manifests though, in one of his matches with Ikeda, from the final BattlArts show in 2011, which is as close to a retirement match as anything has ever felt without being a retirement match. Yuki gets to step through the ropes of his own promotion one last time and Ikeda dials up an even nastier than normal heel performance to let The God cook in front of his people one last time.

He'll be in my top 20. Maybe even my top 10. He's unbelievably perfect.