(NOAH): "If you want to see some action, come to Noah!" Ikeda's "Battle Arts" match

Weekly Pro 

5th September 2000 (Issue No.993)

(DEPARTURE - Freedom & Belief - August 19th Tokyo, Differ Ariake) 

When Ikeda was going into the match against Marufuji, he had in mind the "Battle Arts style of static electricity." Marufuji also wanted to fight Ikeda in this way. As he said, the match was a heavy one, with strikes and joint locks as the focus. I had expected the match to be a spatial, with Marufuji being the one to hold his own, but in a good way, this was betrayed. The finish came with a heavy thud from a

right high kick from Ikeda, and seeing Marufuji not even moving an inch, the referee immediately stopped the match. 

"Since it's the first match, I thought it would be good to make a lot of noise, but also to attract the attention of the fans. I'm a disciple of Yoshiaki Fujiwara , so I can handle anything, but I wanted to see a fierce battle today." 

What I felt after seeing this outcome was that there is a sense of tension on the Noah mat, where the outcomes of matches can be decided in an instant, and just like Akiyama in the opening, Ikeda embodied the fearsomeness.  

Picture blurb notes

Naomichi Marufuji was fine, he commented "I want to continue to follow Misawa-san and Ogawa-san and take as much as I can. I don't want to be led by the people above me, I want to be the center of attention, and then move forward. I want to be like Akiyama-san"

Notes

Static electricity: The original Japanese "パチパチ" ("Panchipanchi") means something like "crackling, popping" or "clapping", it doesn't translate well.