HISTORY IN THE MAKING - ISHIKAWA & HORNET TO TEAM SATURDAY
The story of Yuki Ishikawa is one of legend, and will be told soon in the aptly titled documentary “Ring of Dreams.” The Japanese wrestling master has had an illustrious career, spanning over 25 years, and Yuki Ishikawa is still as tough as he always has been. This Saturday night, September 24th, 2016, Ishikawa will be teaming with veteran Hornet, and the founder of the original Japanese BATTLARTS plans to leave the audience in awe. The unfortunate opponents? Freedom Wallace and his cousin Bradford Montague; but this won’t be the first time Freedom has encountered Ishikawa and Hornet.
Ishikawa and several other wrestlers established the original BATTLARTS in December of 1995. Fast-forward 20 years to the main event of Battle Arts Professional Wrestling’s “Crossroad” on December 19th, 2015; Yuki Ishikawa vs. Freedom Wallace, with Ishikawa defeating Freedom with his world famous Octopus hold. The referee for that bout? Hornet.
Nearly a year earlier, on January 25th, 2015, Hornet defeated Freedom with the sasori gatame, or roughly translated, scorpion hold otherwise known as, “The Sharpshooter.” Both matches were contested under Battle Arts Rules, meaning that there were no pinfalls and victory could only be achieved by submission or knockout.
Many months after those defeats, Freedom Wallace introduced his cousin Bradford Montague on April 23rd, 2016, and the two have solely been in tag team action since. Although Wallace has experience against his two opponents, Montague has yet to face the challenge of either stalwart, Hornet nor Yuki Ishikawa. Montague & Wallace will have to be careful with their usual chicanery, as it will raise the ire of Ishikawa, and surely the pair of cousins will have to be at their best to stand a chance against the veteran duo.
The last time Ishikawa or Hornet were in action in the Don Kolov Arena at Battle Arts Academy was back on February 20th, 2016, when the pair teamed up to face visiting Japanese tag team 阿部史典 & Kenji Takeshima, known that night as Abe’ & Take’ “The Potato Brothers.” Takeshima is a former student of Ishikawa’s and competed in the latter days of the original BATTLARTS promotion in Japan. This match-up was contested under Battle Arts Rules, and the duo of Hornet & Ishikawa were victorious over the visiting competitors.
Prior to that, Hornet & Ishikawa had history as opponents. The two faced off in a five minute exhibition on a night when Ric Flair was visiting Battle Arts Academy back in June of 2014. That was Yuki Ishikawa's first appearance inside a Canadian Battle Arts ring. The two then had a full on match on July 26th, 2014, as part of an all Battle Arts Rules card entitled “Battle Arts 2: Momentum,” in which Ishikawa was victorious in a hard fought contest. Following that, the two met once again as part of a six man tag team match in May of 2015, when Hornet lead a losing effort along with Rosey Brown and Luke Logan against the formidable trio of Yuki Ishikawa, BATTLARTS alumnus George Terzis & The British Brawler.
More recently, Hornet has taken to being a referee for Battle Arts Professional Wrestling, and it was this past August 27th at Summer Heat that dissidence was made obvious between Freedom and referee Hornet. It was nearing the end of the tag team encounter between Clan Freedom (Freedom Wallace & Bradford Montague) & Kingdom Come (DJ & Randy Bynoe), that out of frustration, Wallace went and retrieved a chair from ringside. Referee Hornet quickly removed the chair from the ring before Freedom could take any malicious action, and the two exchanged heated words before Wallace walked right into defeat at the hands of his opponents.
It is unclear as to if there was a challenge made by whomever or however, but this tag team match has been arranged. So for the first time in seven months, both Yuki Ishikawa and Hornet will compete inside the Battle Arts Academy’s Don Kolov Arena for Battle Arts Professional Wrestling, making this a match of historic proportions!
Tickets are still available here
Battle Arts Academy at 4880 Tomken Road in Mississauga, Ontario
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See you in the arena!
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