Talk about it here.

Otsuka outworked Ishikawa here I think. Childs mentioned in Ishikawa-Ikeda on 5/27 how there was too much of guys standing there just waiting to be hit. This match started exactly that way until Otsuka took charge and started bending Ishikawa like a pretzel with all sorts of contortionist-style submissions. Ishikawa follows Otsuka's lead there and this crawls its way to becoming an excellent match just by nature of the holds applied. Give both guys credit not just for being great mat workers, but for being flexible enough to take whatever the other guy can dish out.

I really liked this and thought the mat work of Otsuka was incredible throughout. He was flawlessly mixing in nasty submissions that made me grimace watching at home. The match took on a furious pace and Ishikawa getting the choke victory felt well earned with him using some of his deadly strikes. My under the radar Battlarts gem for the year. (****)

I liked this, of course, because I love these two guys. But I'm not sure it will stand out from the pack of really good BattlArts matches. Otsuka was super-fun as always, transitioning from nifty submissions to a tope con hilo. And Ishikawa threw some badass punches to the ribs to break up the matwork. I also liked the way he flipped out of an Otsuka suplex attempt and hit a sharp enzuigiri to set up the finish. So yeah, lots of cool stuff here, even if they didn't hit that transcendent level of Bat-Bat violence.

"Pink tights...what a load of crap. This ain't no ballet class, son" ... Anyway, I *did* think this stood out, at least to the other BattlArts in '98, and actually think it's a good starting point for people as the style can be a bit obtuse for newcomers such as myself. This has tons of heavy-hitting suplexes but also some really well-done wrasslin' stuff to get your attention, like Otsuka busting out a somersault tope. One of my favorite BattlArts matches so far and maybe the best match on the Japan low-level indy scene this year.