.:: BattlARTS Young Generations Finals 2000, 11^th Sep 2000 ::.
Review by Tom, 29^th July 2002

The Young Generations Battle is BattlARTS annual tournament to crown the strongest wrestler in the promotion. Wrestlers are usually divided into two groups and the winners and runners up meet in the semi final stages. (However the Young Generations Battle has also been a straight knock out tournament). This show from September 2000 is to crown the winner of the Young Generations Battle 2000 – the four semi finalists being Mitsuya Nagai, Katsumi Usuda, Mohammed Yone and Alexander Otsuka. After introductions from Yuki Ishikawa, we begin.


#1 Alvin Ken & Junji.com Vs Ryuji Hijikata & Takeshi Ono

Junji and Ken are both BattlARTS rookies, while Ono gained some notoriety as part of the MOBIUS group with Masao Orihara and also as working as Masked Tiger in Michinoku Pro and Hijikata is the now working for All Japan.

This is a nice opener, performed at a good pace that keeps it moving along well, and preventing the match from dragging along. The basic premise of the match is Hijikata and Ono working over the rookies. Ken and Junji have limited offence in this match that prevents overexposing their rookie move sets. There are some nice exchanges and counters, with Hijikata looking great, as did Ono to a lesser extent; his occasionally sloppiness dragged him down a notch.

There was nothing bad here, and the match is good although is pretty basic. None of the four workers define the BattlARTS worked shoot style and are more suited to pro wrestling, but this was well done, neat and tidy and therefore good.


#2 Ikuto Hidaka Vs Minoru Tanaka

This is a great match, unsurprising considering the abilities of both men. Tanaka gives the kind of performance that he unfortunately rarely does now as IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion. The match is composed of crisp mat wrestling and well-worked submissions. There are some lovely sequences here, with some neat mat based counters and reversals. Tanaka is great, but for my money, Hidaka outshines him with a charismatic performance, equalling if not surpassing Tanaka’s level.

Unfortunately, the bout does not go as long as it could, and another five minutes would have been great. As such, it does not equal the quality of some of their other matches together, but that is no shame. Even still, this was a very good, technically great bout that reflects the quality of both men.


#3 Kazunari Murakami & Naoyuki Taira Vs Yuki Ishikawa & Carl Malenko

After Daisuke Ikeda left BattlARTS for All Japan (subsequently NOAH), Yuki Ishikawa replaced his feud with Ikeda with a feud with the young UFO fighter, Kazunari Murakami. The feud was simply based on hatred and it produced some incredibly stiff action. This bout is example of such action.

This is a great match, made so by the intensely heated, not to mention stiff, exchanges between Murakami and Ishikawa. The start of the match is great, with Murakami rushing Ishikawa before the bell, leaving Malenko and Taira staring at each other as if to say “What the hell?.” The ending is similarly good, with Malenko putting Taira in the Carl Sickle, and Murakami and Ishikawa just staring at each other, their eyes locked in hatred. When Taira taps out, the two explode on each other, unleashing strikes and punches. Murakami must be the most frustrating wrestler (if you can call him that). He is either not bothered, being completely lazy and uncooperative, or he is prowling around the ring, the epitome of insolence, looking to beat the living hell out of someone.

This bout is great, mixing some nice mat based and technical wrestling with good submissions and ultra stiff strikes, coupled with some nice brawling into the crowd as Ishikawa and Murakami spill to the outside. Murakami draws great heat from the crowd with his stiffness, but his laziness is also to downside to the match. As mentioned earlier, when he’s not kicking the hell out of someone, he seems like he can’t be bothered. Luckily Taira did the majority of the in-ring work. It is almost difficult to remember that there were two other guys working this match; Malenko and Taira. Malenko was awesome, as he usually is and Taira looked decent too, especially when it came to striking. Overall, this was a good advertisement for a typical BattlARTS match, great stuff.


There then follows an awesome segment highlighting the action of the Young Generations Battle 2000. Accompanied by a thumping techno soundtrack, we see the basic premises of the tournament so far – firstly, Mistuya Nagai on a rampage, destroying most of his opponents, secondly, Alexander Otsuka and Mohammed Yone upping their games to qualify. Thirdly Yuki Ishikawa’s knee injury prevents him from full competition, as he loses all his group matches. As mentioned above, Mohammed Yone, Alexander Otsuka, Mitsuya Nagai and Katsumi Usuda are the four semi finalists.


#4 Young Generations Semi Final: Katsumi Usuda Vs Mitsuya Nagai

This is a well-worked match, nicely put together. It match focuses on strikes and mat work, with Nagai being ultra stiff with his kicks. Usuda is fantastic, ruling this match with some fluid mat work, segueing into well-worked submissions. The ending to the match was well done and made sense. The moves used are ordered so that they have a meaning and leading towards the submission finish. The submission was also nicely done, with Nagai attaching his usual Chicken wing Face lock, but segueing it into a choke sleeper, as if to demonstrate that Nagai needs something more powerful to make Usuda submit.

The bout only goes 12 or so minutes which isn’t enough to achieve greatness. Ideally it should have gone five or so minutes longer, but seeing that the winner has to fight again, it probably made sense to keep it shorter. However, that is the only moan with this bout. It was technically good, with plenty of submissions and strikes and evenly fought.


#5 Young Generations Semi Final: Mohammed Yone Vs Alexander Otsuka

As Yoji Shimoda says on commentary, “Mr Afro Vs Mr Skinhead”. Looking at Yone is strange, especially considering the skinny little kid that competed as Satoshi Yoneyama back in 1996. Again, this was another sound bout, however it could, probably should, have been a lot better. The first part of the bout was mat based, and although Otsuka can work such a style, Yone has trouble with it, and the match promptly suffers because of that. The pacing also seemed a little way off, with one or two sequences coming off poorly and the match only goes 10 minutes which is just too short.

However, there is plenty to like though. The second part of the match was a lot better, as it changed to a more pro wrestling style, which both men can do. Yone was stiff as hell, battering Otsuka with barrages of kicks. There were some nice touches, such as Otsuka teasing to use Yone’s own Muscle Bomber finish on him, only for Yone to counter with a jumping knee and then the Muscle Bomber. The finish was good, with Yone thinking Otsuka wouldn’t get up from said finisher, only for Alex to get up and hit a Dragon Suplex that KO’s Yone. (Although the fact that Otsuka got up from the Muscle Bomber at just a 4 count was a little disappointing considering it is Yone’s finisher.) Overall, this was by no means terrible, but could have been a lot better.


#6 Young Generations Final: Mitsuya Nagai Vs Alexander Otsuka

The final of the Young Generations Battle therefore falls between the stiff kicking Nagai and the stiff suplexing Otsuka. All in all, this has to be considered a disappointment. After some nice opening work the match settles down to Nagai battering Otsuka with his stiff kicks, before Otsuka finally reverses a strike into a cross knee breaker for the submission victory. Once more, this bout barely goes ten minutes, which for a tournament final is very disappointing. The shortness of the bout and the fact that he looked very subdued leads me to believe that Otsuka was carrying some form of injury. Indeed, he does hold his elbow with a grimace in both the semi final and final, so maybe that is part of the reason.

Although the opening to the mat contained some nice mat work, the bulk of it was just too one sided. While this approach could be explained in part by the possible injury to Otsuka, Nagai, despite his defeat still looks a threat. This was really just average, and is therefore considered a disappointment.


CONCLUSION:

ENTERTAINMENT - 7 – There is a lot of good action on this tape, but I have to admit the final of the YGB is disappointing, especially compared to the drama of previous finals. Still, there is a lot to like here with a great Tanaka-Hidaka match and the crazy stiff Ishikawa/Malenko-Murakami/Taira tag match..

WORK RATE - 8 – The word ‘lazy’ is rarely attached to the BattlARTS guys and this tape is further proof. Even the opener, while not strictly a great match, cannot really be faulted for work rate. The work rate is generally excellent, with a few exceptions.

.:: FINAL RECOMMENDATION - An enjoyable tape. If you like the style, then you’ll like this. To be honest, there are better BattlARTS events out there, but this is still good stuff. It must be said, if the worked-shoot style is not your thing, then neither will this be ::.