Yuki Ishikawa vs Bison TAGAI
This was fun. Most mat-based BattlARTS matches don't do it for me, and this was unashamedly an exhibition, but both guys looked like they were having a blast wrestling this. After not really caring for any of his 2010 stuff, I had forgotten how good Ishikawa is on the mat and he carried this nicely, coming up lots lots of sick reversals and constantly moving the match forward. Bison has enough charisma and personality to make up for any shortcomings.
Katsumi Usada vs Ryuichi Kawakami
This was just an exhibition for Usada to show off some nice submission and counter work on the mat. I'm not sure if that's how the match was intended to be, but due to Kawakami being pretty useless in this envorinment, that's how it went. He was more of less just a broomhandle for Usada to kick and lock in some nasty holds on. He got in next to no offence, and when he did Usada would just counter it effortlessly in swank fashion. Kawakami was just totally outclassed and made to look second rate in the ring with Usada.
Yuki Ishikawa/Hideki Suzuki vs Daisuke Ikeda/Super Tiger II
Yeah, this is what you want. The moment Ikeda tagged in and blasted Ishikawa with a kick to the hamstring you knew this was going to live up to the standards for Ishikawa vs Ikeda. What a war these two put each other through. You *know* none of those shots were pulled, and they totalled murdered each other. You don't see slaps like Ishikawa's at a monkey show. Loved how everytime Ishikawa seemed to get the upper hand, Ikeda or ST2 would come in for a cheapshot. What dicks. Tiger was pretty damned awful; seriously son, this is BattlARTS, stop dancing around and make sure your damn kicks connect. The match quality dropped significantly whenever he was in, but thankfully everyone else was on point. Suzuki stepped up, both on the mat and in the end run - dug all of his big throws and suplexes. Still, to reiterate: this was Ishikawa vs Ikeda, and they will fucking murder each other for you.
Best Of 2011
1 comment:
It was Katsumi Usuda, not Usada.
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