Comprehensive Super Rider #2

              (Written by jom)

Super Rider & Super Uchuu Power vs. Kazushige Nosawa & Sanshiro Takagi (DDT 03/25/1997)

    This is the main event of DDT's "Prelaunch Battle", which basically means the show was meant to be a preview of what people could expect from DDT once it officially launches. Starting your promotion with two of the founders taking on shoot style spacemen is truly next level wrestlebrain, so it isn't shocking Takagi has been able to grow DDT into being the possible #2 most popular promotion in Japan.

    Takagi and Nosawa were pretty sweet here, both were really energized and constantly fighting Uchuu and Rider in really scrappy ways. Both guys were throwing some hard dropkicks all throughout the match, especially Nosawa who threw a really gross one especially at Uchuu to break up a submission. Takagi meanwhile was already very clearly the top guy in the promotion, with everyone chanting his name and some big comeback spots towards the end, peaking with this beauty of a tornado DDT:

    Super Uchuu Power (Koichiro Kimura) was undoubtedly the star of the show. He was an absolute killer here, doling out some nutty strikes and hitting insane slams. He was lariating Nosawa and Takagi like they owed him money, and the way he treated Nosawa especially was borderline hard to watch, constantly destroying him with crazy moves like a double tombstone piledriver. The nastiest thing he did to him though had to be the powerbomb shown below, the bounce that Nosawa got off of being slammed onto the mat was horrifying.

    While Rider wasn't able to perform at the same level Power did, he more than held up his portions of the match, dishing out some great kicks and cool pro wrestling spots. His kicks especially were pretty awesome, doing some great jumping rolling solebutts and at one point accidentally hitting Power with a great Rider kick.

    The overall match did have some iffy pacing and the extended length of it led to some spots that felt like they were almost repeating, but overall this was a damn cool fight. In terms of history, this match is extremely important too, as it set the stage for the first few years of life for the eventual juggernaut that is DDT, so on that front it's definitely worth checking out.

Rating: B+

Super Rider vs. Takeshi Ono (BattlArts 06/02/2001)

    This is a rematch to the Korakuen match reviewed previously on the blog. Last time, I thought that while a good amount of the work was really awesome, some iffy pacing and the lack of interest from the crowd left me somewhat disappointed in the final product. Hopefully, now that they've gotten some more experience working together, those problems will be alleviated and they'll pull off the match I know they can.

    Takeshi Ono was, in a sense, pure Takeshi Ono here. He did the usual awesome strikes, slick grappling, and great selling, all at the usual high level he did it at. This was also a great piece of evidence to support my belief that Ono is maybe one of the greatest "targeting" wrestlers of all time. When Ono picks a spot of the body to go after during a match, he's truly vicious as hell, and in this match he totally wrecked Rider's leg, with tons of gross kicks and submissions that honestly shock me didn't actually fuck up Rider's leg.

    Super Rider was going pretty damn crazy in this match too though. He met Ono on the mat with some superb grappling, doing some awesome submissions like one particular counter into an armbar. He also brought the goods with striking, at one point throwing a real sick high kick that Ono sold like death. While he didn't have as many high spot type moments as Ono, the stuff he provided helped keep the match's intensity at a level not at all seen in the previous match they had.

    This match was kind of insane, because somehow, the crowd was even less interested during this one than the Korakuen one. However, even accounting for the near silence during the match, this fucking rocked. While the last match they had was more of a fun creative juniors type match with bomb segments and more emphasis on spots, this was just a total grappling fest while still retaining the creativity of the last match. The late match bomb throwing was amazing too, and my god the actual finish ruled. It even only went about 7 minutes, so genuinely, go out of your way to see this.

Rating: A-

Super Rider vs. Tomohiro Ishii (RJPW 03/01/2009)

    This match was brought on by GBH member Ishii seemingly laying out a challenge to Rider. Ishii needs little to no introduction, around this point he was no longer the sleazy indy guy that Rider had previously faced in 2000, but instead a full-on NJPW roster member. Whether or not that made him better or worse is up to your interpretation (it made him worse).

    Ishii was a solid bruiser in this match, doing a ton of heel type work. He threw Rider around outside and hit him with chairs, and he took cheapshots whenever he could. He didn't really do anything particularly special, but he was entirely competent in the role he played and he did throw this killer lariat:

    Rider was totally off the bean in this match though. He started out doing his usual stuff but as the match went on he got progressively more angry and more aggressive, eventually busting out full-on shoot headbutts. The big turning point was when Ishii had manhandled him on the outside some, and Rider decided "fuck this", whipped his shirt off, and started throwing closed fists at Ishii's midsection. Getting this level of violence from Rider wasn't easy at this point, so it was awesome to see him get this pumped up.

    Eventually, the match ended in a DQ after Ishii ripped off Rider's mask, leading to Rider putting on his old Hopper King mask and brawling around with Ishii for a couple more minutes. Overall, this had some pretty awesome moments but did leave me wanting more. Sadly, the GBH invasion would go nowhere after this (mainly because GBH practically died a month later) so we never ended up seeing a rematch between the two, but what we got was solid enough.

Rating: B 

Comprehensive Super Rider #1

              (Written by jom)

Hopper King & Hiroshi Shimada vs. Black Hole 1 & 2 (IWA Kakuto Shijuku 05/14/1995)

    We're starting off where every great article should start off, with a match in the Yong Dong Village food market. Hopper is teaming with big guy Shimada who I'm a fan of, and they're taking on one of my favorite acts on the sleaze scene, the Black Holes. I have no idea who Black Hole 2 is and can't even begin to throw out some guesses, but I'm fairly certain Black Hole 1 is the same Black Hole previously talked on the blog in that amazing shoot style tag match from the West Japan korakuen show (this Black Hole may or may not have gone on to become Eagle Pro's Super Judist but you didn't hear it from me).

    Going into the match, I had a pretty strong idea of how it was going to play out. Hopper would throw his strikes as much as he could while the Black Holes would respond with brute force and absolute mass to crush him. I'm starting to get good at predicting how matches go because within the first minute this exchange happened, proving my idea entirely:

    This is how the match mostly went for its sub-10 minute runtime. Hopper was pretty sweet here, throwing some thudding kicks and did all his pro wrestling type stuff really well, even hitting an awesome Rider Kick towards the end. He also was somehow able to do a little grappling on the big man. Notice I said man, because Black Hole 2 is in the ring for maybe a full minute. I'm sure he was in for longer and those moments were just clipped out, but this was entirely about Hopper and Shimada taking on the original Black Hole. A very good thing in my opinion, because the original Black Hole rules, throwing big man clubs and judo throws like there's no tomorrow.

    Shimada more than held his own end of the match too. He was able to do some solid stuff with the biggest highlight being hitting this genuinely disgusting senton, the way he landed made it look like all of his weight fell on only the right half of Black Hole, probably crushing all the ribs on that side. The match's finishing stretch wasn't anything special but it didn't feel out of place or rushed either. Overall a pretty solid affair, with the three people that mattered getting to do some cool spots, but nothing that'll blow your mind.

Rating: B

Super Rider vs. Takeshi Ono (BattlArts 01/07/2001)

    Ono is one of my favorite BattlArts guys, as pretty much all of them had one defining trait and Ono's was closed fist punching. Just wanna say before the match even starts, Rider is his Hopper King gear of red pants and a red Super Tiger Gym shirt, so he's going full throwback for this one. Ono meanwhile is wearing his awesome trench coat, although he doesn't have the cybergoth mask he work in like 99, so his look doesn't feel entirely complete here.

    Contrary to his attire choice, Ono was in prime form wrestling-wise here, fully committed to punching Rider in the face and kicking him in the balls. He busts out some awesome punch combos throughout the match, as well as doing a couple really creative sequences like hitting a snap suplex before immediately flowing into a gnarly handstand kneedrop straight to Rider's face. One of my favorite moments from him comes early in the match, with Ono just countering Rider's attempt at a waistlock by kicking him directly in the nuts and slapping on a deep manjigatame.

    Super Rider, honestly, wasn't at the same level as Ono here, but he was definitely at a high enough level to warrant appreciation. A lot of his kicks had that same thudding impact he's had his entire career, and he also busted out a little cool grappling like transitioning a crossface chickenwing into a slick backslide. Some of his spots down the line did kinda drag and get sloppy, but he recovered for the most part in that area just by hitting this insane German suplex:

    The finish sadly did feel a little rushed, and the crowd was never really into the match either. This was 2001 BattlArts so that's not an uncommon occurrence for any match that's not the main event, but it definitely didn't help this match in any way. Somewhat disappointing considering the unrealistic standard I probably came in with, but there were enough cool moments between the two that it's totally worth checking out if you're already a fan of either guy.

Rating: B

Super Rider & Yuko Miyamoto vs. Takafumi Ito & TORU (SSPW 07/29/2021)

    We have arrived to 2021, and Rider's final match in SSPW as of this post. All three other guys in this match I'm a fan of. Miyamoto is genuinely one of the best wrestlers of his generation, consistently putting in amazing performances no matter if he's in a normal match or a deathmatch. Takafumi Ito is really damn good and has been enjoying a very fun late-career revival recently. TORU is one of Tenryu's chosen ones in Tenryu Project and he absolutely deserves the credit Tenryu has given him because he's extremely talented in the ring.

    It's crazy that I said all that shit about Rider being old and near retirement because he and Takafumi Ito started this match off with some absolutely awesome grappling. The guys on commentary said "Shooto vs. Pancrase" and just hearing that definitely added some level of authenticity to everything happening, with both guys going back and forth with holds in a really smooth yet competitive way.

    TORU and Yuko Miyamoto more than held up their ends of the match as well. TORU didn't get a ton to do here but was able to hit his beauty of a dropkick. Miyamoto meanwhile had some awesome grappling and working moments on TORU, and even pulled out a pretty sweet handspring backflip kick instead of his usual handspring elbow. Takafumi Ito was probably the best guy in the match though, throwing hard strikes and doing tight grappling as seen above, as well as hitting his great uranage as seen below:

    The finish came soon after this, but I do just want to say that Super Rider's Rider Kick is still solid as hell. It's genuinely shocking to me that he was able to pull it out at 58 and still make it look pretty damn sweet.

    Overall, this match was some fun stuff. Rider and Ito's interactions were genuinely really enjoyable, and TORU and Miyamoto helped to keep the match flowing when the older guys needed to take a breather. A worthwhile early card match and proof that Rider still has some solid work left in him.

Rating: B

Run it Back: Yuki Ishikawa/Takeshi Ono vs. Daisuke Ikeda/Katsumi Usuda

    (Written by Jom)

       The rematch is a concept very fondly thought of in pro wrestling. I mean, of course it is. Unless you're some weird masochist (or enjoy the z movies of pro wrestling rather than the blockbusters), a good match is pretty much all the average fan can ask for. Then you announce that said good match will be done a 2nd time? How much more excited can I get?! While pretty much every rematch is enjoyable because who doesn't like a good continued saga, there comes a certain extra level of happiness when that sequel has had a long period between it and the original contest. These rematches allow the original match to age like a fine wine, meaning when you finally uncork the chemistry and history for the rematch, it feels that much more refined and exquisite.

    ...Having said all that, this is professional wrestling, and this blog has a propensity towards headbutts and shoot punches. Comparing these matches to fine wine just feels wrong. Speaking of headbutts and shoot punches, today I’ll be watching one of these match and long-awaited rematch combinations, as four of BattlArts’ greats battle it out in tag matches spanning from 90s BattlArts to 10s FUTEN.

BattlARTS 01/21/97(starts at 01:35:08)

    Every single person in this match has the classic trunks and kickpads look, except for Ishikawa. He's rocking tennis shoes and knee-high socks which yes, are also covered by kneepads. King shit. The match starts with an Ono and Usuda sprawl, and man, I already miss both guys. Ono's got such great technique and Usuda is one of the smoothest grapplers in history. Eventually Ono gets the advantage with a heel hook, but Ikeda isn't a big fan of that so he runs in and head kicks Ono. This lets Usuda put in his own heel hook, but Ishikawa also isn't a fan of that, so he walks over and FALLING HEADBUTTS USUDA. We are one minute in and we've had heel hook trading, head kicks, and headbutts. This is BattlARTS, baby. Ikeda and Ishikawa tag in and the crowd pops, as by this point fans knew what to expect from the greatest rivalry in history. Ikeda puts Ishikawa in the corner and as they come out of it Ikeda does a nasty suplex onto Ishikawa's head. How do you follow something like this up? Well, if you're Daisuke Ikeda, you kick Ishikawa straight in the fucking face. Usuda is able to get tagged back in, throwing some kicks and elbows with truly malicious intent. At this point I'm almost 99% sure I heard a baby crying for a second. This means that one person in the audience decided to raise their child on Bati-Bati. I stopped just taking notes for this post and started also taking notes for my future. Usuda kicks Ishikawa towards the ropes and OH YEAH BABY IT'S TIME FOR THE IKEDA/TAG PARTNER MACHINE GUN KICKS. You know the one, Ikeda's partner is throwing kicks from the inside and Ikeda is throwing kicks to the back of the opponent through the ropes. Ikeda tags in and does a sweet combo on Ishikawa, but at this point Ishikawa decides he's done fucking around and headbutts Ikeda. He lets go of Ikeda's head and backs up a little, and OH MY GOD, LEAPING NO-HAND HEADBUTT, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. A LITTLE MORE EXCHANGING BETWEEN THE TWO BEFORE THEY START THROWING POTATOES, I AM SO HYPED UP RIGHT NOW. DAISUKE TAKES THE ADVANTAGE, REAR DAICHAN BOMBER, HIGH KICK TO THE FUCKING NOSE!!! At this point Usuda gets tagged in and I'm given about 20 seconds to breathe, which I fucking needed. Ishikawa gets control of Usuda and is able to do his signature struggling backdrop. The fact nobody today does anything even remotely similar is a travesty. Ono gets tagged in, and at this point he had only been part of the great early sprawl. Ono makes up for this lack of presence by immediately high kicking Usuda hard enough to get a knockdown. Ikeda and Ono exchange blows, and Ono starts to target Ikeda's leg. When I say target, I mean like a shark to blood. He gets a knockdown count on one of his leg kicks, which I thought actually crippled Ikeda for a second. Ikeda sells the leg like a gunshot, holding onto the ropes for dear life, knowing that he literally cannot stand on his own at this point. Even after tagging in Usuda the selling doesn't stop, as the moment he knows he's no longer the legal man he drops straight to the ground. Ikeda's body is hurting but his willpower is unmatched. Usuda has control for a good bit, but Ishikawa is able to take it back and put on a nasty single leg crab. Ikeda tries to break it up with a kick to Ishikawa, but Ishikawa holds on, and before Ikeda can try again Ono comes out of nowhere with a huge flying knee and a high kick that sends him to hell. Ono puts Usuda in a manjigatame and Ikeda FUCKING RABBIT PUNCHES HIM. HE GOES FOR THE DAICHAN BOMBER BUT ONO DODGES, BUT ONO CAN'T DODGE THE 2ND ONE. USUDA HITS A GOD DAMN REAR URAKEN, AND FINALLY LOCKS IN A REAR NAKED CHOKE FOR THE TAPOUT VICTORY. As a long-time BattlARTS fan, I can say this was a definitely above-average BattlARTS main event tag match. This sounds somewhat degrading, but it's also important to know that in my own opinion, BattlARTS main event tag matches are some of the greatest matches EVER. For this to be above average really speaks to how good it was. Every single person got their moments, and the ending sequence was one of the greatest I've ever seen. If Ono got a little bit more time to shine, I believe this would've been a top 10 match ever. However, as it stands now, I guess it'll have to settle for top 100.

Rating: A

FU-TEN 12/19/10

    It's been nearly 14 years since the first match, and these four men have traded their swiftness for pure old man spite. Before the match even starts, Ikeda rushes Ishikawa. They've been doing this shit for almost two decades and the heat behind their fights has never calmed, only grown more and more ferocious and remorseless. Ishikawa at one point slaps Ikeda in the back of the head, and Ikeda makes him pay for the disrespect by stiffing him with elbows and kicking him straight in the face. Ono gets tagged and immediately goes straight for Ikeda's leg, almost like after these 13 years Ono still remembers the killer tactic that almost got his team the win last time. He then follows this up with an absolutely evil double knee drop to Ikeda's face. By the way, this is less than 5 minutes into the match. Usuda gets in and he's still a great grappler, not moving as smoothly as he did in '97 but that makes sense since, y'know, it's been 13 years. Ishikawa and Ikeda tag back in and Ishikawa is soon put into a rear naked choke. Ono rushes in out of frame, only appearing on camera at the last second to dropkick Ikeda straight in the face. Ishikawa throws some loud slaps, but Ikeda just gets angry and does a nasty shoot headbutt. Ishikawa then tries to get a crossface chickenwing in, but Ikeda simply bites his hand to make him stop. This is why my personal hall of fame is called the "Ikeda Memorial (yeah I know he isn't dead) Violence Hall of Fame". Ikeda tries multiple Daichan Bombers but keeps getting reversed by Ishikawa, before finally hitting a nasty one, AND ISHIKAWA GETS BACK UP AND ENZI'S HIM STRAIGHT IN THE JAW. Ikeda is down for the count, but right before the 10 is able to tag Usuda in. Usuda comes in like a house of fire to the also-tagged Ono, but upon trying a leg scissors takedown on Ono gets stomped in the face. Ono rains down some shots to the prone Usuda but Usuda still finds a way to get an ankle lock in. Usuda later locks a fujiwara on Ono, and Ono tries to roll out of it. Usuda notices this and maintains the arm control to put it right back in, but is still forced to released it by an Ishikawa headbutt. Ono then takes control with some of the nastiest offense I've ever seen, including a punch flurry on Usuda while he's hanging on the middle rope, a running knee to the face, and a double arm manjigatame. Everyone in this match is just tired at this point, but even while they go in and out of consciousness they continue to try and bludgeon their opponents, running on adrenaline alone. Usuda and Ono trade urakens but Usuda gets control and puts in a heel hook. Ikeda sees this, and flashbacks to the 1997 match hit him. He walks over with Ishikawa trying to hold him back, and as god as my witness, IKEDA HITS THE HEEL HOOKING USUDA WITH A FALLING FUCKING HEADBUTT. Hype has now reached critical mass. Usuda gets some leg kicks in on Ono but Ono throws a stray round straight into Usuda's jaw, taking that moment to jump onto him and lock in a sick guillotine, which Ikeda STILL finds a way to break up. Ono throws a punch combo at Usuda and, realizing that Ikeda would always find a way to break up his submission attempts, rushes Ikeda and slugs him right in the jaw to keep him out of the equation. Ono gets greedy however, and after finally dropping Usuda with one more big right, goes for another one, which Usuda is able to dodge and Ono gets put in a heel hook. Ishikawa drops some knees straight to Usuda's forehead but Usuda refuses to let go/ While this happens Ikeda has gotten back into the ring and is doing repeated crawling headbutts to the trapped Ono. This is absolute chaos in the best way possible. Ishikawa finally forces Usuda to break the hold, and Ono gets on top of him and throws a shit ton of mounted punches. FU-TEN's director decides to switch to a dutch angle for this, and I want to kiss that director on the lips because it was magnificent. Usuda is barely holding on at this point and is about to lose, when Ikeda finally is able to get away from Ishikawa and does a POINTED KNEE TO THE BACK OF ONO'S HEAD, THEN A DAICHAN BOMBER, AND USUDA PUTS A NASTY KNEEBAR IN TO ONCE AGAIN, 13 YEARS LATER, FORCE ONO TO TAP OUT. Even after the bell rings and the match is over, Ikeda and Ishikawa won't stop throwing headbutts, because hate this strong lasts forever. I'm not sure if it was communicated well enough in this long wall of text, but this match was decidedly more violent than their '97 one. However, in my personal opinion, the '97 encounter between these teams is just a little bit better, as that match had nearly no down time and everything felt better worked towards. In isolation though, there aren't many matches that come close to being better than this one. All hail FU-TEN. All hail BattlARTS. All hail the art of Bati-Bati.

Rating: A-

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)