Discuss here.

Same thing here with Ikeda like it was with Otsuka. Didn't do much for me in NOAH (Although I know there's a couple random mid-card matches he was in that people liked) but he was just something else in BATBAT. Could see him making my list.

His first NOAH run had some really good matches even if he wasn't amazing every time out. The Honda matches and the 2003 arena brawl are among my favorite NOAH matches ever.

 

Here's the number two Battlartist. His specialty is the sickening violence that Battlarts and later FUTEN's reputation has been synonymous with over the years. Only reason he's not at Ishikawa's level is 1.) NOAH and 2.) Gaps in available footage.

I don't care what he did after BattlArts. After that run, he would make my list anyway.

How do people compare Ishikawa and Ikeda? I'd put Ikeda ahead pretty handily after watching more stuff, even though I think their best matches are against each other. I guess the big difference is that Ikeda feels like Ikeda the first time I see him, while Ishikawa took a little more time to resemble the Ishikawa I know.

I'd put Ishikawa comfortably ahead. I appreciate his ability to build great drama while working largely from underneath. He pulled off some great matches with Greco, working the mat, that Ikeda didn't have the range to achieve. And yet he could go to war with the best of them. I love Ikeda to pieces--one of the all-time badasses. But Ishikawa was the ring general in that fed.

I love ikeda too, but I am with Childs. Ishikawa has more range, and doesn't have the stinkers on his resume that Ikeda has

Ikeda's 2/20/97 match with Greco is bad ass.

I'll have to go watch that. Did they go at it on the mat as hard as Ishikawa and Greco?

Phil or Childs. .. which one is in the Futen headbutt tag? That one is the best.

I'll have to go watch that. Did they go at it on the mat as hard as Ishikawa and Greco?

 

I don't remember. Here are my brief comments about it from WKO:

 

ohtani's jacket Posted: Sep 7 2009, 08:35 AM

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Added -- Daisuke Ikeda vs. Carl Greco (2/20/97)

This kicked ass. I reckon you can make a strong case for Ikeda being a better worker than Ishikawa.

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(Wrestling KO) Mike Posted: Sep 7 2009, 10:33 AM

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Are you sure it's good enough to make the list? I mean, it's a good match, but only goes about 8 minutes and the matwork wasn't exactly high end. Loved that Ikeda stomp though.

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ohtani's jacket Posted: Sep 7 2009, 02:59 PM

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It smoked the Ishikawa/Greco match from '96. If I find a better Greco match, I'll get rid of it, but the matwork was awesome and I don't see the problem with the length.

EDIT: I watched their rematch from July '97 and it was nowhere near as good. In fact, it was kind of poor. I stand by my kick ass assessment!

Phil or Childs. .. which one is in the Futen headbutt tag? That one is the best.

 

Ikeda

Then he is the better one.

Phil or Childs. .. which one is in the Futen headbutt tag? That one is the best.

 

Ikeda did harrowing violence like nobody else, that's for sure.

 

Anyhow, I went and watched the Ikeda-Greco OJ mentioned. Really good, tight match. Ikeda probably worked from underneath more than usual, though not on the level of Ishikawa in his '98 and '08 classics with Greco. BTW, Greco was an amazing talent; I need to do a focused watch of his BattlArts work to see if he's a guy I might vote for.

I don't have time at the moment, but there is a 2008 or 2009 Futen tag where Ikeda works mostly underneath against a guy who looks to be his protégé. It was an odd viewing in that Ikeda took on the role of Ishikawa for the match. After I get home this afternoon I will try to find an exact date.

There's way more "Ikeda working from underneath" than you'd think and he rules at it. He always gets credit for the maulings he dishes out, but his selling ability is as good as anyone elses.

If there was ever a guy who deserved a complete and accurate it's Carl Greco.

The match I mentioned earlier is:

 

Ikeda/Ono vs. Suruga/Oba 4/9/09

 

There are better matches of the style out there, but it's more for the purpose of highlighting Ikeda in a role he's not in as often as that of the asskicker.

Had a legitimately great match against Kane.

I have no idea what's the consensus on the comedy bits in his matches as I've never seen anyone talk about them but I find them amazing. I could watch him react to getting a yellow card all day long. Another thing I haven't seen talked about is how great at bumping he is, particularly at eating Lariats. He's a top 15-20 guy for me currently.

I don't know how much actual comedy I've seen him do, but his veteran heel shtick (which he seemed to be doing mostly in BattlARTS matches) where he was doing eye gouges and shoving his thumb up his opponents arse etc. was pretty great. Like the world's most violent Masao Inoue.

Daisuke Ikeda is the next guy who deserves a big post.

 

The guy's longevity is quite incredible. We're not talking about a guy here who has a long career where he is looking really solid till the end. But rather a guy who has really great matches and MOTYCs in almost every year where he makes tape, up until the very end. The guys versatility is underrated. Sure he is a beast and that's his selling point, but especially during the early BattlARTS months where other guys were still adjusting he was clearly leading and holding things together, along with Ishikawa. He has the epic big matches, the blood feud with Ishikawa aswell as very good sub 10 minute matches to pad out his resume.

 

Daisuke Ikeda of the Year

 

1993 - I don't think his debut was taped

1994 - Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (M-Pro 15.12.1994)

1995 - Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda v. Yuki Ishikawa & Shoichi Funaki (PWFG 5/19/95)

1996 - Ikeda/Ono vs. Ishikawa/Otsuka (BattlARTS 30.10.1996)

1997 - Alexander Otsuka vs. Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 5.11.1997)

1998 - Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 29.8.1998)

1999 - Yuki Ishikawa v. Daisuke Ikeda (7.29.1999)

2000 - Daisuke Ikeda vs. Mitsuya Nagai (BattlARTS 30.1.2000)

2001 - Daisuke Ikeda vs. Tamon Honda (NOAH 1.9.2001)

2002 - Morishima/Ikeda vs. Takayama/Smith (NOAH 26.7.2002)

2003 - Ikeda/Morishima/Rikio vs. Akiyama/Izumida/Saito (NOAH 16.3.2003)

2004 - Morishima vs. Ikeda (NOAH 1.6.2004)

2005 - Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (Futen 24.4.2005)

2006 - Ikeda/Nagai vs. Ishikari/Miyamoto (Kings Road 9.4.2006)

2007 - Yuki Ishikawa/Alexander Otsuka vs. Hara/Ikeda (BattlARTS 21.7.2007)

2008 - Ishikawa/Otsuka/Sawa vs. Ikeda/Usuda/Super Tiger 2 (BattlARTS 26.7.2008)

2009 - Ikeda/Ono vs. Suruga/Oba (Futen 26.4.2009)

2010 - Ikeda/Oba vs. Hashi/Mashimo (Futen 24.10.2010)

2011 - Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (BattlARTS 5.11.2011)

2012 - Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono vs. Kengo Mashimo/Hikaru Sato (Futen 22.1.2012)

 

In a 20 year career, there are about 15 real hits there that would tremendously boost any very well respected wrestlers resume, and in many of these years there's lots of extra awesome matches even when they are 2nd best. And that is with the disadvantage of much of his Futen work not being available and BattlARTS stuff often being clipped.

Barely made the cut at 100 in 2016 which means he could be in trouble of falling off. But all of the shoot-styled wrestlers I've seen, Ikeda is my favorite. Wonderfully violent and physically-intense wrestler. The Ishikawa series probably represents the bulk of his peaks, but I love the Ono and Morishima matches and the Futen tag against Sato and Mashimo.

In his peak he's awesome, one of the best. Probably a top 10 candidate. But there's just too much back end stuff that drops him down. His late 10s NOAH run was one of the saddest parts of a career I can remember seeing and certainly one of my personal least favorites. I had him in the top 30 last time and he did one last banger with Ishikawa in Germany, but I would put him below the top top tier of shooters. He won't drop out of the top 50 though.

Amusingly I think Ikeda is one of the people from the bottom 10 last go around most likely to retain a spot, and it’s largely due to the early start. One good weekend of Ikeda is possibly enough to strong consider him as an option to retain.