The Diet Butcher Of Tokushima

Alexander Otsuka VS Mitsuhiro Matsunaga - BattlARTS 11/9/1999

CJD: You wanted a BattleArts rabbit hole John? Well you're about to be Alice chasing rabbits into a tea party you never expected my friend!! I originally wanted to take us to RINGS to really get me out of my comfort zone but left feeling flat with my options. This match on the other hand somehow matched the highs of your damn near perfect tag, just in a completely different way. Matsunaga was so good at telling the monster movie story in his singles matches after the mid 90s deathmatch heyday was wrapping up. He really found his groove for the second half of his career which wasn't easy with how protected and limited he was. Side note I bet these two would have a blast at his steakhouse reminiscing about this match today. For what it's worth John, there is more of Mr Danger in BattlArts to explore if you want to stay buried in that rabbit hole!

JJZ: 13 year old John thought Matsunaga was the craziest wrestler of all time. Any tapes I got from BJPW I would watch his match first! Otsuka and Matsunaga put on one hell of an effort to make this a wild ass unforgettable match. So wild, in fact, that a FIREBALL was a transition spot! Come on! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! Shout out to Tom McGinnis for all you Sixers fans. I haven't been watching a ton a wrestling recently, so this really sparked my inner flame for this beautiful art! I knew how great Matsunaga was, but Otsuka really shined for these 15 minutes. Would never have guessed he'd hang in Matsunaga's style match so comfortably. He was bluechew stiff as usual, but he was blood and guts approved in this gem.

Love Is A BattlART

Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono VS Yuki Ishikawa/Alexander Otsuka - BattlARTS 10/30/1996

JJZ: So, if someone asked me what Battle Arts are, I would just show them this match. Totally blurring the lines between real and "fake." This looked like all four guys were shooting on each other for twenty two minutes. It was really well executed violence. I'm totally expecting you to say you've shown this to me before, but if you haven't, it gives me hope to bring joy to your eyes. I think I might show it to our real life friends that enjoy wrestling also. The crowd was eating everything up with a spoon and I was feeling every kick, slap and suplex through my TV screen. I'm hoping me and you go down a long rabbit hole of the fine Arts of Battle!

CJD: John I had the pleasure of sitting down and watching this with you and said IRL friends and one of the first things I said was, what was that,like 13 minutes?  The fact it's almost twice that is amazing because this match just flies by. When I saw the names I thought I'd seen this before but I actually hadn't! And man oh man am I grateful to have watched it now. One of the greatest tags in the history of BattlArts which is really saying something. I don't think any two wrestlers enjoyed kicking the shit out of each other more than Ishikawa and Ikeda. If you had to introduce someone to Otsuka this is such a great summary of everything that makes him awesome. And maybe the best Ono match I've ever seen?? He's such a tremendous dickhead all match long. This match rules!!!