[2000-07-20-BattlARTS] Yuki Ishikawa & Mohammed Yone vs Mitsuya Nagai & Yuji Hijikata

[soup23]

Strong BattlARTS tag match here. Hijikata is someone that I can’t remember much of a highlight from before this point in time but Yuki leads him around here and he looks competent on the mat and even gets in some good near finish submissions with his choke on Yuki as he is able to just position his leg over the rope break. That was integral in making him feel like a threat even though it was pretty predictable for him to go down at the end to the Octopus. Yone picked his spots here which was refreshing and I liked Nagai coming in and adding little touches to the match like kicking away at the aforementioned rope break from Ishikawa. This was very enjoyable and mixed in wrestling, strikes and submissions with a side of some storytelling. ***1/2 (7.1)

[Edwin]

Hijikata is a guy I remember as he was an AJPW Jr. four or so years after this. I don't recall anything memorable he was in though. Here wasn't that good, neither was Yone who I'm not fond of.

 

Ishikawa is probably the best Battlarts guy and Nagai has been great when he's been working with Ishikawa, but unfortunately we don't get a good enough exchange between these two to make this memorable.

[ohtani's jacket]

This was a nice little match. Yone is a guy I've never cared for but he was able to kick and stomp away to his heart's delight while Ishikawa did some nice stuff with Hijikata. Hijikata impressed me with his all-round game. This may have been an outlier but he was busy here. Some nice flurries toward the end capped off a strong tag that was short and sweet and kept a steady beat.

[superkix]

This was alright, with the highlight being the exchanges between Ishikawa and Hijikata. Yone and Nagai were decent, although it would've been nice to see more interaction between Nagai and Ishikawa. Picked up toward the end but the finish was not very good.