The Comprehensive Takeshi Ono-Team Taco
Two of the hardest guys (and best buddies) ever deserve their due.
The Comprehensive Takeshi Ono-Team Taco
Two of the hardest guys (and best buddies) ever deserve their due.
There’s little more heartwarming in wrestling than a pair of good friends willing to clobber one another. Daisuke Ikeda and Takeshi Ono are a beautiful testament to that. First meeting in PWFG, the two became mainstays in BattlARTS, Ikeda through his never-ending war with Yuki Ishikawa and Ono in early-card bangers. These two eventually formed the eponymous Team Taco, wrestling with and against one another throughout the remainder of their careers. They would go on to main event multiple BattlARTS cards and beyond unto Ikeda’s own promotion (and the peak of pro wrestling) Fu-Ten. These two are so intrinsically linked that Ono’s last taped match is as one half of Team Taco.
These guys, like all good BattlARTS teams before and after them, have a raw, visceral edge to their work that makes every strike feel impactful. There’s something unique between Team Taco, though, that makes their matches work so incredibly well.
One of the biggest reasons this team works (like most tag teams should, in my opinion) is that either man fulfills a different role. Ono’s the wiry, muscle-bound little shit-kicker who never lets up on his strikes, and Ikeda’s always willing to throw his weight around to hurt someone bad.
The best part about this is how each member covers for the other’s weaknesses, kayfabe-wise and structurally. While Ono struggles to assert himself physically against some of his larger opponents, Ikeda more than takes care of that. Ikeda gets trapped on his back or side sometimes, so a quick, pestering presence like Ono’s keeps the bigger guy safe. Ikeda’s also much more of a daredevil than Ono, willing to fall flat on his ass to try and nail a spinning wheel kick or equivalent bomb, especially so because he knows he has an ace up his sleeve if he gets into too much trouble. The only way I can think of describing Ono in these tag settings, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, is as a nuisance. He’s constantly thwarting his opponents’ plans and making life significantly harder for them, a tiny ball of energy and strikes that won’t be put down. They bounce off of one another so effortlessly, a quality that transfers beautifully into their encounters against one another. Whether they’re working together to take down the dastardly Yuki Ishikawa or on opposite sides of a Fu-Ten trios tag with the Brahman Brothers, Team Taco work wonders in any shoot style setting you can imagine.
If you’ve never heard of them before, I bet you’re wondering why these two call themselves Team Taco. Well, according to my friend Jom (the same person I stole the name of this series from, check his work out here) these two were already good friends, which you can tell from their immediate chemistry working together. Their first tag match as a team took place in Tako, against who else but Yuki Ishikawa and Alexander Otsuka, and they brought the house down. They decided to name themselves after the city that gave them their fame, and I think that’s really cool. Tragically, I can’t find the footage of this anywhere. If it exists, it’s a handheld fancam stored in a box of other unarchived tapes. Let’s hope a hero comes through and finds these (possibly fictional) tapes so we can see how one of the best teams ever came into existence.
The first photo we have of them as a team.
The most interesting thing I found out during my research (through talking to Jom) is that Ono was the first person to call the Manji-Gatame, the submission made popular by the likes of Antonio Inoki, the Octopus Stretch. “Tako” is also the word for “octopus” in Japanese. Whenever someone calls a Manji-Gatame an octopus hold or clutch, on commentary or in reviews, we all have Takeshi Ono to thank for that. More proof if necessary that he’s a far more legendary wrestler than people give him credit for.
While the fine folks over at Segunda Caida did a wonderful job compiling a COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA, I want to focus on the little guy on this team. Takeshi Ono is one of those wrestlers I immediately connect to, not just as a skinny guy with questionable outfit choices sometimes, but as a type of wrestler I don’t see too often. He wastes little to no motion, everything he does is intended to hurt as much as possible, and all of his strikes are carefully pinpointed, usually punctuated with a loud thud from his padded gloves, which also let him hit people MUCH harder than his contemporaries. He has a mosquito-like quality to his persistence, a willingness to throw himself at anything that works at any time. Takeshi Ono is my type of wrestler.
I wanted to start talking about his impeccable body of work, and there’s no better place to start than his most famous partner and opponent. After I post a part of the review, I’ll post the links to them here. This is the start of The Comprehensive Takeshi Ono, Team Taco edition.