Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono vs. Alexander Otsuka & Satoshi Yoneyama (Inoki Festival, 12/1/96)

For a stiff as day-old catshit BattlARTS exhibition tag, this match ruled. Everyone had a role to play in this, and Ikeda’s willingness to get dumped on his head by Otsuka’s brutal suplexes will never not impress. Yoneyama’s the unknown underdog rocking the Tiger Mask IV pants and for a guy I’d never heard of, my first impression is a thumbs up, as he dished out some punishment as much as he took it, especially in the end against Ikeda. Ono was awesome with his wiliness both on the mat and on his feet slinging kicks. I liked the way he nonchalantly tapped Otsuka with kicks or kick his opponents from the apron. Both he and Ikeda did a good job of patrolling submission holds, so mostly, this was about the fold-up suplexes and hard hits. The finishing stretch was ugly beautiful, as poor Yoneyama tries to quickly submit Ikeda with the front necklock but that backfires and Ikeda solebutt kicks him in the throat, kicks him in the head, and when Yone won’t stay down, he slaps him silly and kicks him back down for good.

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