BattlARTS July 26th 2008: Ishikawa, Otsuka and Sawa vs. Ikeda, Usuda and Super Tiger II

So, I've just downloaded a match that is getting loads of attention on the DVDVR boards: Yuki Ishikawa, Alexander Otsuka and Munenori Sawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda, Katsumi Usuda and Super Tiger II, from the BattlARTS July show.

I preface this by saying I've watched absolutely no BattlARTS or, for that matter, any worked shoot promotions before. In fact, my sum total of experience of anything even slightly related to the genre is those Takada matches in New Japan in 1995-6, the Yamazaki vs. Hashimoto feud, and one Maeda match from the 1980s. And I watched that Joe vs. Angle match from earlier this year, which was totally definitely UWFi style. Cough. Anyway, this is a match which Phil Schneider has called possibly the best thing ever done in this style, so apparently, I'm starting from the top. Normally, I wouldn't like doing that - but I really want to see this now.

Play.

So, the match is an elimination tag. Sawa is in a lot at the start, and he brings loads of energy and takes quite a lot of offence from the opposing team. I'm struck immediately by the amount of quality mat wrestling and the intensity of the striking, but both are to be expected in this style of match. The first fifteen minutes fly by with loads of submissions (and loads of everyone running in to break up holds with head stomping and, in Super Tiger's case, out of control flying elbows) until Sawa gets eliminated. That spot is really nice - he gets caught with a knee bar then an anklelock when he goes for the Shining Wizard, while his partners are prevented from making the save.

There's a bunch of cool stuff in the next portion of the match with Otsuka, my new religion. Firstly he pulls out a lucha-y counter and submission. Then he pulls out a nasty head vice, which looks doubly nasty when Super Tiger doesn't get taken down to the mat but instead finds his head twisted at right angles (very wrong angles) to his shoulders.

Gradually, the match moves from matwork and submissions to more striking. There's a point about 22 minutes in where Ikeda stomps through Ishikawa's skull to break a pin, then Usuda delivers a handful of the most legitimate looking headkicks I can remember seeing. Ishikawa gets revenge some minutes late, headbutting Ikeda, then mouting him and punching his SQUA in the face. And so it goes on. More importantly, this is combined with a subtle, slow deterioration-type of selling which really conveys to cumulative damage building up over the course of the bout, and really makes the match for me.

Otsuka finds more clever things to do when an opponent swings a kick wildly, transitioning into a knee bar on one occassion, and a leg-capture suplex later on. I really loved having a knockout blow in the three headdrop suplexes that eliminated Usuda. They are headdrop - they should be sold like death.

The match finally comes down to Ikeda and Ishikawa, who just let everything hang out. Amongst all the hideous violence, there's one kick that seems to just catch the front of Ikeda' face, which I can only reasonably assume removes the nose. Anyway, they strike and strike, and catch a couple of possible finisher submission, but neither find the winning shot and time runs out at 45 minutes.

I am conscious that new things often seem particularly exciting, but even so, I still thought this was on another level to most of what I've seen this year. It'll definitely feature in my top matches of the year. There's something very unforced about it, which probably comes from not working in spots to pop the crowd. I asked around to see whether the reason this was getting so much attention was because it was an exceptional example of the BattlARTS style, or because it was at the usual standard, but extended into a long match with an different format in the elimination match. The answer appears to be the latter. Therefore, more BattlARTS please.