[1998-03-06-Battlarts] Alexander Otsuka vs Tomoaki Honma

[Ma Stump Puller]

Honma in Battlarts sounds like the weirdest combo never to be a thing, but it actually was a thing for a good while during his early career, and it's also surprisingly strong even though he was losing basically all of his matches...of which like less than 1% got taped. This is just a solid shoot (ish) match for about 6 minutes, and the two really make it work for what they have as Honma focuses on slick head and leg locks while Otsuka is able to get out of all of his attempts at submissions and make him pay with either his own or just slamming the guy, with the occasional burst of action with either strikes or whatnot. Honma is surprisingly good at working a more amateur wrestling style into things, finding ways to sprawl on the mat or keep Otsuka busy with transitions to the ground. There was a good feeling of minimalism here as the two kept mostly to the basics, with a wacky Otsuka-style head spike scoop slam and a brainbuster being used as dangerous moves that are treated as such, each getting knockdown attempts. The most spot-based move we got here was a second rope dropkick. Honma lands a awesome German suplex and rear naked choke combo, but Otsuka gets on a heel hook instead, forcing Honma to use one arm instead for the choke; this proves to be his undoing as Otsuka can simply turn his body to said arm and reverse the leverage, snapping on a nasty Chickenwing instead.

The second one is converted into a Dragon Sleeper which Otsuka then does a Giant Swing out of while Honma is still in the hold, which was a pretty great bit. They give the underdog a hope spot as he turns a half Boston Crab/Achilles Tendon attempt into a sudden ankle lock and Otsuka crawls to the ropes like a fish out of water to really get over the danger he was in. Otsuka takes a Samoan Drop on his side in signature Otsuka fashion but they do a good job of showing Honma try to finish him off afterwards with a furry of strikes, only for Otsuka to wreck his shit with a terrifying head-drop Capture and Dragon Suplex combo for the finish. This was very robust for merely 6 minutes and got over a easy to follow shoot-style pace that made sure to add in some explosive bits whenever things felt slow. Honma is quite good at this kind of stuff, wish more of it made tape: shoot-style Honma is a lot of fun.