(Greetings from the beautiful city of Richmond, VA were representatives
from both major DVDVR factions are meeting to attempt to put their
differences behind them and reunite for the good of on-line
international wrestling criticism. After tense negotiations over the
meeting site, Phil Schneider flew in from Washington D.C. representing
DVDVR FOGHAT to meet with vacationing DVDVR Hollendaise leader Dean
Rassmussen. This following document- DRIVERette #BRAVO- is a detante
from the war and a possible step towards reunification.)

DEAN: After going over to Hangman Tim's and taping the August episode of
Wrestling Power 99, Phil and I watched some fabulous BattlARTS- the
pinnacle being Diasuke Ikeda vs Alexander Otsuka.  Alexander Otsuka is
the most improved wrestler of 1999, in that he has become a more
dangerous, heavyweight version of Minoru Tanaka.  Otsuka's suplexes in
this match are not just dangerous and neckbreaking, but they are from
angles that require great athleticism- thus adding to the allure of his
repertoire of spinesnapping dangerous moves. The one that most impressed
me was when he throws Ikeda with a Released Tiger Suplex with such air
under it that it gives the move ACTUAL DANGER- as opposed to the
Tigermask-incarnation's aesthetically delicate versions that make the
hold a vehicle for a pretty bridge.  Here, Ikeda is crushed as badly
with this Released Tiger as when Otsuka kills the fuck out of him with
his much-vaunted Released Dragon Suplex.  The match itself keeps clear
of True Match Of the Year status because there is too much goofiness at
the beginning- what with the hideous and comical Ikeda Flying Space
Tiger...uh... Thing and Otsuka's Giant Swing to goof out the stiffness
and death that surround it, but actually any match that starts with
Otsuka making Ikeda bleed hardway from a truly dickish headbutt has lots
that can be forgiven.  Plus Ikeda comes to the ring in his Jimmy
Snuka-esque Tiger Print Boxing Robe that makes YOU party and freak-out.
The coolest parts of the match are when Otsuka does this dopey
Run-The-Ropes-Armdrag and Ikeda answers by kicking him Punter-Style
right in the face.  The other great move is when Otsuka grabs Ikeda's
foot while Ikeda is standing and Ikeda feigns a Enzuguiri but instead
does the cool-ass Counterenzuguiri legsweep into a kneebar.  It fricking
ROCKED. Otsuka does the picture perfect Kaz Hayashi Somersault Tope Con
Hilo- but at his weight it looks SO much hurtier.  Ikeda does the
Greatest Brainbuster Of 1999 and procures the Sleeper and this match-
that YOU need to see- comes to a close. I can't think of a better
BattlARTS single match off the top of my head, but there have been so
many in the last two years that come close to this, so I don't feel
ready to say it's the best BattlARTS singles match in existence, but
either way, this is real motherfucking good.

PHIL:  While Dean wrote the review of Ikeda v. Otsuka, I watched the
pretty great Misawa v. Vader match from the Dome show.  Vader has had
quite the spectacular resurgence, as this match was as good as the best
of his pre-WWF material, and a step above his early All Japan matches.
Stiffness rules the roost as Vader starts out by popping Misawa with his
corner punches, knocking Misawa's head back and forth with each punch,
they then went into a mat section, which is the thing that all non-Vader
All Japan matches lack. This paucity of mat wrestling is my biggest beef
with All Japan and why I prefer BattArts and Lucha to AJ matches. There
was bunches of other great stuff in this match too, as Misawa breaks out
the nasty elbow suicida, and the pescada onto a prone Vader, he also
gives Vader a released German Suplex which Vader leaped with so it
looked really dangerous. It is little spots like that which seperate
Leon White from every other superheavyweight in the world. Vader hit a
nasty released German of his own, and a nice Tiger Driver, which was a
big Fuck You to Misawa. Vader also missed his awesome moonsault, a move
which is just unbelievable for a 400+ pound, 40+ years old man to
attempt, even without a history of bad knees. This was clipping along at
MOTCY pace, but the ending was kind of weak, as Misawa breaks out his
elbow combos, he pastes him with a discus elbow for a near fall but his
final running elbow was weak looking, and I think Vader went down too
easy. Still a damn good match and a better match then last years Dome
main event.

DEAN:  (Watching more of the BattlARTS) Carl Greco for some reason
becomes Carl Malenko (and he's gonna tag with fricking JOE Malenko in
BattlARTS- as if BattlARTS needs to win me over anymore than they have.
But in retrospect, Rasta the Voodooman is currently wrestling on some
BattlARTS shows so they may need to build up some goodwill after all- if
our man Rasta makes it to the BATTLESTATION!) and you can see his
Malenkoization between the first tag match- where he and Ishikawa
wrestle the FABULOUS tagteam of Otsuka and Yone- and the other cool tag
match- where he and Ishikawa wrestle Yone and Bob Bachlund.  The first
tag match is a showcase for Otsuka and Yone to highlight their stylized
and talented version of the Road Warriors as they do cool crushing
Brainbusters and Fishermanbusters and then Yone busts out the finishing
sequence where he beats the hell out of BattlARTS elderstatesman
Ishikawa by kicking the fudge out of him in the corner and then he and
Otsuka go all RWish with the swanky double shoulderblock on Greco and
then they kill the hell out of Ishikawa with a Leg-drop-modified
Doomsday Device.  The TRUE Carl Malenko busts out in the Bachlund match-
as he opts against his usual Modus Operandi of feigning true shoot
fighting with the kicks setting up his legit-looking (if amazingly
boring)shootstyle submission work and instead opts for really cool
looking preposterous Volk Han-ian Carney-cum-Theszian Bone-against-bone
Stepover Toeholds and Work Against The Joint Modified Indian
Deathlocks.  He busts out the Dean and Joe Cool-ass Inventive Weirdo
combo moves that he busts out in earnest in this match: the two coolest
were the Strange Fujiwara LegArmbar With the Crossface that looks like a
fucked-up armbreaking La Majistral, and the Double Underhook Suplex
Knee-To-The-Face Crusher.  Malenko goes all freaked out Pro Style like
Micheal Jordan after escaping the grips of Dean Smith and suddenly he's
one of the neato-est white guys wrestling currently- what with the
carney, the dropkicks, suplexes, the freaked-out double teaming with
Ishikawa (swankiest being the freakin' AWWESOME Whip-Into-A-Dropkick
that kills the fudge out of Yone.)  Backlund in the match has a really
endless Short-armscissors deal with Malenko as Backlund seems to have
actually latched onto a few things while working the style, gets a big
pop for the synchronized duckwalks by he and Yone (and added Stereo
Backlundian twitches and signatures gestures)  and procures the
Crossface Chicken wing.  Two pretty fabulous matches- with the second
being more fabulous for me because Carl Greco begins the transformation
to Carl Malenko.  Not bad for a guy who was trained by Bart Dussell
(according to the Observer I glanced at over at Tim's tonight.)  It's
BattlARTS.  Get all of it.

PHIL: Heaven's never too far away, we're getting closer to it every day.
Dragon Kid and Judo Suwa have an eyepopping match like only they can
have. This is for the NWA something or other title, and is the last one
they will have for a while, as Dragon Kid is out with shoulder surjery
and Judo Suwa seems to have dissapeared. Suwa is the perfect rudo, as
Dragon Kid's world class highspots look twice as great with Suwa as the
recipiant. They must have trained together, as alot of the great moves
in this match were truly collaboratory, these moves include a boss front
flip hurricanrana, backwards leaping hurricanrana, and the all time
greatest combo I think I have seen, a springboard rana by Kid, who gets
caught by Suwa as he rolls through Suwa's legs, Suwa then pulls him up
to attempt a power bomb and gets flipped over into a rana in the last
second, but he rolls through for the pin. Other stuff of note include
the great double jump moonsault by Kid, some near arm bars by Suwa, and
the great sequence where Kid falls to the floor and catches his leg on
apron (which looked like it tore his groin and prevented any Littiler
Dragons), Suwa instead of checking on his fallen comrade, smacks him
with a  great tope. There was some sloppy parts, and the middle dragged
a bit, but it was a damn fun match and well worth watching.

MORE TOMORROW.
 

home