[1998-11-28-BattlARTS-Battle Fiction] Bob Backlund vs Yuki Ishikawa

[cactus]

This is slightly clipped, but nowhere near to the extent of most of the other matches on this show. This goes 22 minutes and I think we are missing around five or so minutes. This is the final to the B Cup 1998 tournament and both men had wrestled earlier in the evening in the semi-finals. Backlund flexs his cardio by running all over the place as the match starts to put over how much he's still got left in the tank. You can tell Ishikawa is having the time of his life wrestling Backlund as he has a big grin plastered across his face as they start grappling. This match is all holds and not much else. Granted, the holds look decent and there's always a sense of a struggle, but I need more than that to rate a match higher than decent. Backlund is charismatic as hell and watching him deadlift Ishikawa with one arm was genuinely impressive and it might be my favourite moment of this match. 

★★¾