Fighting Investigation Team Battlarts (Battlarts)

[10.0] "My favorite shoot style promotion. , loved watching Fujita jr Hayato, Sawa and Minoru Tanaka matches."

[10.0] "For my personal money the best wrestling promotion ever. It's sister promotion turned spiritual successor Fu-Ten was great too and in a very similar vein but Battlarts more greatly displayed the greatest mixture of all styles of wrestling and wherein all said styles were given equal validity and highlighting. "Fighting Investigation" is right there in the extended company name after all. But the entire construction of this company from it's carefully cultivated roster, its focus on rules regarding B-Rules and U-Style, and its lack of company titles all culminates in this product that is about the wrestling first and foremost and the excitement of the wrestling, while still of course allowing for the cartoon-y aspects of wrestling to shine through and not be downplayed or eliminated like with most full on shoot style promotions and philosophies on wrestling. A Musclebuster is just as valid a move as that of a tactical Fujiwara Armbar and treated with just as much weight in the damage it can do, and both are performed by those who are presented as students of their respective styles who perform such. Battlarts was a promotion that truly "believed in pro-wrestling" (to quote a famous fictional pro wrester) and had no shame in being so while also wanting to present every great thing about the medium with dead-on seriousness and weight no matter how goofy it could get. That is Bati-Bati Style, believing in pro wrestling so hard it morphs into a cataclysm of reality to be respected. Being a bit less esoteric, Battlart's focuses would change throughout the years in slight ways. Up until 1998 the promotion would be incredibly technical and no-nonsense but still take advantage of the boom period time frame of wrestling to get in a large vast array of wrestlers to mix styles under the Battlarts modified U-Style rules & Bati-Bati Style. 1998 to 2001 the promotion would embrace more the goofy nature of wrestling at times as all wrestling was during said era both in Japan and North America. Best exemplified by the FMW & BJW feuds that would roll through 1999, the introduction to occasional "Pro Wrestling rules" matches and more clear face and heel dynamics in matches, and their collaborations with Arsion that for whatever reason played more to comedy at times. Following the "lost period" up until about 2007 for the company following their loss of TV deals the revived Battlarts that would last until it's closure was more a return to Battlarts roots but was admittedly not as strong as the 1996 to 2001 run was for my tastes. It was all still incredibly high quality but it was also more focused on Ishikawa's philosophy and focus on submission-based wrestling in contrast to Ikeda's striking heavy philosophy that would inform Fu-Ten's main match layouts. B-Rules matches would that were submission only were more common and striking and more mixed styles would sort of fall off with the new crop of roster Battlarts would bring in. Like I siad though, it was all still very high quality and things like their short lived Queen Bee division actually having shoot style women's wrestling was quite innovative (even now still) but a tiny bit of the magic was gone and instead more of the energy of the original Battlarts run would be found in Fu-Ten by my measure during these later years. Still though, Battlarts on the whole was pure Pro-Wrestling. I say "pure" not in the quality sense (though I'd argue it was), but in the philosophical sense; and it's via that that it's quality was so consistently top quality that even the lowest on the card, unimportant matches, still felt like hard fought bouts with an importance to the wrestlers in that ring. Long Live Battlarts, long live Bati-Bai."

[9.0] "[8.6] I feel like Battlarts running more frequently and expanded out a bit more would be my favorite promotion of all time. Battlarts and Bati-Bati on the whole for me strikes a perfect balance between the shoot style stuff and more classic/traditionally pro wrestling stuff, where they just treated it as as valid of a style of fighting as the shoot techniques. Aside from really loving the style of it, early Battlarts had a legitimately incredible roster, with names like Otsuka, Usuda, Ikeda, Yone, Ishikawa, Tanaka, all under one banner. Their output started slowing down in 2002, in fact I believe they were basically dead for a time, but they were still fantastic whenever they ran. Fuminori Abe and Takuya Nomura's Kakuto Tanteidan shows have pretty much become the successor to Battlarts, which is great, but the shows are fairly infrequent. Either way, in my mind, this is the shit."

[10.0] "The only reason I do not consider Battlarts the greatest promotion of all time is because Futen exists. This is a place that completely and utterly transformed my taste in wrestling. I tend to prefer version 2 more than version 1 but it is all great."

[10.0] "Battlarts is the greatest promotion of all time. This is a very big claim, but in my own opinion this is almost undeniably true. During its first incarnation, Battlarts had one of the most stacked rosters on the planet, with genuine all-time greats Ikeda, Ishikawa, and Otsuka at the helm, along with unsung top-level wrestlers like Ono and Usuda, and even some amazing future prospects like Hidaka, Tanaka, Hijikata, and Yone. The bati-bati style which mixed a more shoot style mentality with the general pro-wrestling style resulted in some of the greatest and most vicious singles and tag matches to ever take place. Once the promotion died in 2001 and came back officially in 2004, it was full of new life with one of the best crops of new talent in wrestling history, with Sawa, Yano, Hara, and Yamamoto leading the promotion's younger generation for the last 7 years of its existence. There was never, nor will there ever be another promotion quite like it."

[10.0] "I absolutely love BattlArts. I don't know why there's no -e- in battle, but whatever. Its a great name for a promotions, and a great company in general. I love that they never had any title belts of their own, just pride in their win/loss records and tournaments. And they showcased wrestling in a very pure way, which takes me back to when wrestling actually had wrestling in the show. These fighters actually strike and roll on the mat. No punch, kick, run the ropes and flip for way too long. These matches are believeably snug, and celebrate pro wrestling roots. Maybe the shoot style isn't for everyone, but this nerd here loves it. I don't know why the company went under, but who know; we could get lucky and BattlArts could start again. I know I'd love it. Sister promotion Fu-ten was also enjoyable for the same reasons."

[9.0] "This company was pure gold, especially in its last 5 years. BattlArts was the perfect promotion to become a shoot-style fan as the matches had hard striking and realistic grappling mixed with more modern spots. I also loved the fact that they produced most of their shows in tiny warehouses where every slap and every kick would echo through the building."