I’m just a huge fan. In everything I’ve seen, she is extremely crisp in all of her offense and it all looks great. She’s especially great in the tag matches I’ve seen.
Now that I’ve finalized and submitted my list I can say that he came in at 16. Whenever I put on a match of his, I kept thinking, “he’s not that well-regarded, he won’t be good in this one.” And inevitably, he’d prove me wrong and stand out time after time.
I love him. Top 20, maybe top 15 for me. He just really is right up my alley for what I like to watch. Hard-hitting, tough stuff. I like seeing when his name comes up to watch.
He’ll probably end up top 20 for me. I came in to this project thinking”he’s got such a big rep, I know he’ll be lower/not make my list.” But man, time after time, promotion after promotion, I come out of the match thinking, “wow, he’s so good.”
I have no background on Japanese wrestling. The first match from Japan that I watched was when I started doing this project a couple of years ago. That is to say that I have no preconceived notions of this realm of wrestling or who is overrated, underrated or whatever.
Looking at my big spreadsheet, as it currently stands, Sasaki will likely end up in my top 10 unless a lot changes between now and submission time. I like what I like. The thing I like most is big dudes striking the crap out of each other and hucking each other around. He delivers that in spades and I’m not afraid to admit it.
I'm going to say it: I love watching this guy wrestle. I wonder if it's what Jetlag posted above me talking about how he was judged at his time. I just started watching Japanese wrestling in 2022 when I started doing this project. The matches I'm seeing against Nakajima, Akitoshi Saito and others are just really hitting with me and he's going to be really, really high on my list. Just prepping everyone for that, haha
I just watched the 1/29/15 match with Rave and it was awesome. Just a super tight 16 minutes with a lot of great spots, back and forths and a really good finish with Rave getting the tap out. 5 stars for me.
He's extremely good. As others have said, and true athlete who just moves so smoothly. He's also among the most-self indulgent wrestlers I've seen and that can make things a slog to get through. He's an all-dessert kind of wrestler. It sounds great at first, but too much makes you sick and craving for some protein and vegetables.