Taira is becoming my boy. The opening 10 minutes of this were all on the mat and Malenko has such a method of just smothering people that it is engaging to watch just to see if the match ever will result in a standing position. I want my shoot style to feel grimy and an uncomfortable experience for the workers and Malenko exudes that. The final two minutes become a kick fest with Malenko showing some kicks you ordinarily don’t see very often and then Taira firing off his usual array. Taira didn’t have quite the precision on his spinning kicks that he has before but the speed was there. He also lands a crossbody which was a pretty alarming spot in a shoot style contest worked in this manner. The finish has Taira hit a double underhook suplex and win by essentially locking in the Rings of Saturn. Malenko’s shoulders are really stressed as evidenced by the camera angle we see when he taps out. ***3/4 (7.6)

Nice gradually building match featuring a grapple-heavy opening with lots of matwork before escalating into some strike exchanges in the ending stretch. Loved the thrown in cross body toward the finish and liked Taira's spin kicks to the head. Finishing submission is very painful looking as well.

 

***1/4

Man, I really love watching Carl Malenko. Dude is always in some fun matches. Taira has come along nicely here too. I had no idea they had given him the Independent Jr. title... This was good, yet relatively underwhelming considering the sides involved in it. The mat exchanges were fun, but the scrambles weren't exactly at the level of the earlier Ishikawa vs. Ono match from the previous month. The finishing stretch was OK'ish as it wasn't particularly great either as they seem to hold back a lot and not blast kicks ala Nagai, but that body press and rolling butterfly suplex into a double armlock were neat.

 

***

Carl Greco is one of my favorite workers ever so you know I ate this up. Taira looked like he had improved since his debut. I loved all the grappling in this and the finish was awesome. I even liked that wayward moment where Carl tried a lariat off the ropes. The BattlARTS commentators sure are annoying though.

This was fun -- Greco's a blast to watch maneuver around the mat, working leg holds and putting Taira in some predicaments. Taira wasn't bad either on the ground and he whipped out plenty of leg kicks, spin kicks, high kicks, kick kicks. I thought the triangle counter was really cool, and the finish with the double arm suplex into the butterfly hold.

 

this is not Taira's best in my day i went to alot of battle arts show but carl greco was all one of the best shootists there ever was yes not on the Volk level but every few are but this is **** match

This was Greco at his suffocating best. He dominated most of this with his grappling and at times it was hard to see Taira having a lifeline. When it looked like he might be able to at least bring the fight to its feet - where he'd conceivably have more chance of doing something - Greco would grab a cravate from his own back and twist Taira back to the mat. It's not even that Taira is useless on the ground -- he has some moments and works his way into the mount nicely at one point, it's just that Greco is in full demon mode on the night and that'll be a struggle for anyone. Towards the end we even got to see him unload with some knee combos so maybe Taira doesn't have an advantage on the feet either. There were a couple rope running sequences that felt a wee bit jarring given the previous ten minutes, but I don't think I've ever seen a cross body score a nearfall in Battlarts before, and I suppose you could look at it as Taira having to get especially creative just to weather the Greco storm. Taira had a quietly fun year in 2000 and Greco being quietly awesome in general is kind of his thing.