The Urban Ken Archive #1

 (Written by yeelord)

    If you've never heard of Urban Ken, I don't blame you. his career only spanned a little under 2 years (1999-2001) and he was incredibly outshined by the rising stars of BattlARTS. However, even though he didn't do anything of note, that's not to take away from his wrestling ability. In fact, he's one of the most underrated wrestlers of BattlARTS' long history. In this post I'll be reviewing EVERY SINGLE match of his that were taped.

Ryuji Hijikata vs. Kenny (May ??, 2000)

    I might as well zip past this one since I had just saw that this was taped as I was typing the introduction. Samurai only gave us about 30 seconds of this match but it well showcased the future Urban Ken. He scored a good takedown on Hijikata before securing the Cross Armbar victory!

Rating - ??/10 (Too clipped to rate)

Takeshi Ono/Ryuji Hijikata vs. junji.com/Urban Ken (Sep. 7, 2000)

    This was a very fun, quick matchup packed with a lot of heat behind it for no reason other than because it's BattlARTS. Ono and Hijikata bring in their striking game and proves to serve them well against the two. Our boy Urban Ken is still sticking with his quick and great mat-work offense, putting in hold after hold. lots of great tag team moves being done here. With all that being said there, they might have been working a bit too fast for their own good as there were a couple moves being sloppily thrown together. Fortunately, that doesn't take away how good this match was though. Very tough to think that all 4 of these guys would have a very "under the radar" future ahead of them...

Rating - 7/10 (Very fun match!)

Naoki Sano/Naoyuki Taira vs. Katsumi Usuda/Urban Ken (Sep. 10, 2000)

    20 minute Urban Ken match, oh boy! Can't wait to watch 20 minutes of Urban Ken kicking ass? well... you're not going to get that. You see, this is one of those matches were somebody has to take the bulk of the damage, and unfortunately for us, it's the smallest man in the match Urban Ken. He has slight bursts of offense here and there. Mainly busting out his signatures (The Spear, Slaps, and the occasional Headbutt) but for the most part, he's getting the ever loving piss beaten out of him. The rest of the match is good, specifically Taira's flashy kicks and good slams (His background is Shootboxing). Usuda is a killer as per usual. And Sano brings in the more traditional Pro-Wrestling into the mix. The match ends with Sano making Kenny tap to a Boston Crab, the ol' "Young Boy Finish". All in all, it's genuinely a great match and worth your time if you need 22 minutes to kill.

Rating - 7/10 (Great match)

    

    And that's the end of the first edition of the Urban Ken Archive, I will probably continue to do this 3 match format until I've seen every taped match of his (there aren't many, unfortunately). Stay tuned!