Ma Stump Puller

Recently seen this guy in a Fujita tag in 1998, thought he looked pretty damn good for someone his size. Kinda reminded me of a far worse Akira Taue when it came to "lanky big lad doing shit you wouldn't expect" antics, and said impression only got stronger when I seen him in UWF just belly flopping all over a rookie Sakuraba. Really should do a deep-dive of him in the future because he seems like a fascinating character despite the over-push he got post Le Banner win.

I would say TAJIRI counts for this given he's never had THE match that was all him at the end of the day. He has a lot of good to great showings (the Rey Smackdown saga, the Nishimura MUGA series, etc etc) but never the "best" match, I would say. Maybe that's because he was never on the top top billing but his career is essentially a lot of reliable work but never really hitting any potential super peak.

Has his moments but very complacent and is more than happy to stay in the NJPW-bubble of inflated matches and padding through the roof forever more. The Shibata match was the last time he got out of his comfort zone and it was really more of a "kicking and screaming" kind than anything else. When he does something interesting with himself that's not just mildly adding a few extra moves to pad matches out more I'll be ready to discuss his versatility. At the moment he's obviously full of good matches to bring up, but at a point where everything is just starting to melt together into one padding-stuffed cake, how much can that be ignored?

Kashin is WAY more varied and has a ton more to work with than Takaiwa for me, namely because Takaiwa never changed or adapted, kept doing the same stuff over and over and over again. I could never handle a deep-dive of the guy because it would all be the same bomb-sequences or recklessness. There's times where it really works and I enjoy his presence in matches, but a lot of the time it's just rethreads of stuff he did in the 90's but slower and less explosive. The NOAH stuff is probably the last time he felt refreshing and if he's not doing his usual bomb-spamming then he struggles to show off much else outside of that. His Black Tiger stuff sucks ass. Idk what happens but he just loses all ring quality he has left and becomes a generic brawling heel that sits around and sucks the energy out of any match he's in with either stalling or very basic wrestling; maybe you might get a Death Valley Driver near the end but it'll always be kicked out so it doesn't matter either way. I get having him on a list like this but his flaws are incredibly obvious and get worse over time.

It's short by HHH standards for me given his typical "big match" length lol. I did check the length of the Rollins match and it's only 10 seconds shorter (Cagematch has it as 25:50) but I will say it feels much longer than that given the slower pace based around slow and boring leg work.

It's hard to grade the guy because while I think he's had some great matches, was probably one of the few proper hated heels in a long while and was a very competent wrestler, the main issue I always had was the need to overextend, overdramatize, just drag matches WAY beyond their reasonable sell by date to fit in more shit. People have made this claim many times so I'll keep it short, but there are so many HHH matches that would've been great if they'd just cut it way down. Bryan at WM 30 was a perfect example of how shorter matches made his stuff more fresh and interesting; it feels like his position meant that no one could just walk up and say "cut this down" so you have to suffer through a lot of long stuff for the sake of being long. It really harms the positives of his longevity because he wants to work longer than he can realistically do and it shows as he needs a LOT of time in-between sequences because he's gassed up. Throw whatever blame at Misawa and co for extending matches beyond reason, Trips contributed to that culture a ton more than people expect. He got post knee-explosion Kevin Nash to something presentable in a ladder match despite him gassing up 5 minutes in as per his own admission. I mean, it wasn't GOOD or anything but gotta throw a bone to the guy

Other Deep Dive stuff Introduction I've spent the last few weeks trying to figure out if Kendo Kashin is actually worth his flowers or if he's just a unmotivated/lazy performer. Here are the facts learned from watching 100+ outings, spread out from his rookie years all the way to his very recent RJPW and NOAH stuff. Here's some basic info on the guy "Is Kendo Kashin lazy?" This is the most common complaint about the guy. In some aspects, yes: Kashin tends to repeat sequences over and over, and in a meta-sense the audience know his routine well and respond way before anything happens because they know how things go step by step. He is a very sequence-based performer. He doesn't really improvise, he just has a set of things he wants to do and goes through them one by one. His routine might change somewhat based on him adding in a new element or two depending on who he's with, but his general formula stays the same. This makes him consistent in many matches, but also complacent. There are matches where he's clearly just in auto-pilot, yes, but I would say that's fairly rare most of the time. "What's his defining feature?" Kashin is mostly defined by his trollish antics and character work: the best I could compare him to is someone like The Destroyer, someone who's consistently pulling sneaky shit to mess with people, either in the match or not. This makes him enjoyable as he'll always have something new to throw onto the table that'll grab your attention and the rest of the audience. "How does he wrestle?" Kashin confuses people a lot at first because you generally think a Jr-masked man is going to be a Rey or a Liger or at least some sort of agile performer. The truth is that he's frankly none of those things: Kashin works a very specific style that looks weird at first, but there's nuance to how and why he does it in how he's able to aggravate and annoy his opponents to the point where he can slip on a quick submission and win things fast. If Kashin can win with cheap antics, he will and he won't really care afterwards. Him dicking around is at times just aimless trolling, but there's usually a rhyme or reason as to why he does what he does. "Does he have good matches?" Absolutely. Some people tend to go all the way with saying that Kashin either never had a good match or if he did have one, he was 100% carried, which I really can't agree with. He has plenty of good to outright amazing matches in him when he's working with talent that gets the best out of his style. Yes, there's obvious lulls in his history of performances (especially in his second half where he gets rusty due to working sporadically in IGF and the like) but if you can appreciate how he works, there's plenty to go off. "What are his best matches?" This is a good lead-in to how I'll be formatting his best stuff: mainly into his pre-Kashin days as Tokimitsu Ishizawa, bratty submission lad, his best workrate matches and then his best comedy matches. That distinction is made so that every aspect can be covered as opposed to simply a small look into just one aspect, which while beneficial for smaller wrestlers with less range, it doesn't do Kashin much justice in that department. I'll not ramble about the matches too much bar the really significant ones. Tokimitsu Ishizawa: Best of Through much of the Young Lions around this time was undocumented, there's a considerable amount of material still around and it's definitely enough to warrant a separate section, especially given Ishizawa pre-gimmick change is a more subdued, grounded mat-based wrestler; some say his work here is far better than his later Kashin work simply because of that fact. Under the surface is a more heelish figure who gets easily frustrated and tends to lean into dirty antics when he's not getting his way, something noticeable in a lot of his matches. To appreciate the guy best, there's about five or so matches really worth your time: Vs. Liger (NJPW Dream Win IV 24.01.1994) This match has a bait and switch in that Ishizawa attacks Liger before the bell and tries some heel shit to get a upset cross armbreaker win. Liger gets out and proceeds to beat the ever-loving shit out of the little snot for 9 minutes, to the point that the audience turn and start rooting for his opponent instead of just him. Not much workrate but a great early example of Kashin's selling and psychology, playing the defensive role that he'll be essentially doing for the rest of the 90's, showing a ton of guts as he tries and fails to succeed. Vs. Shinjiro Otani (NJPW Hyper Battle 09.03.1993) While these two will have a long rivalry with each other later on, this is a particularly interesting early battle between them as it's almost all set on the mat in submission work. Of course, these two are still Young Lions at the end of the day, so those trappings are apparent in some areas. That said, it's mostly just a no-nonsense mat-scuffle with some drama near the end as they both get fed up with the slow pace and start bombing each other to a rugged conclusion. Vs.Yuki Ishikawa (NJPW G1 Climax Special Tag 4 24.09.1993) 7 minutes of some really well done, really solid mat work exchanges. Very few submissions as those are saved for rope breaks and as proper match enders, not as rest-holds or the like. The pace is frantic, with both men engaging in a lot of one-upmanship as they both struggle to out-do the other in basically everything that matters. Great heel work near the end as Ishizawa gets frustrated and starts bending the rules, with it building to a basic but very well done conclusion that makes perfect logical sense with the rest of the match. Shoot-style mixed with great heat-seeking antics always works really well for me, and it's GREAT here. If you can just watch one of these matches, pick this one. Vs. Naoki Sato (UWF-I All Out Contend Battle 25.11.1995) Sato is a pretty good worker already but this in particular was a fun watch. Ishizawa is aggressive and almost always wired to find ways around Sato's natural advantages, with this going not so well sometimes as he gets caught in submissions and the like. First half is just competent back and forth grappling until Ishizawa pulls another tantrum and starts stomping and cheating, which turns the second half into a desperate fight for survival as Sato and co just start going right into big shots and submissions. Frantic, but not sloppy at all and surprisingly fast-paced in places. Vs. Dean Malenko (Best of the Super Jr III Tag 2 24.05.1996) Malenko is obviously the superior of the two, but Ishizawa shows his intelligent mat-work by managing to handle his mentor a good few times here with his submission wangling, but this is also the best transition into the Kashin persona you are really going to get, as he goes way beyond what he normally does and starts going for the nasty hand-biting and whatnot when push comes to shove. Malenko is smooth as anything here but I think Kashin really shows just how much he can actually do here as he goes step to step against his mentor with his sharp counters and unexpected submission attempts. A fantastic sub-10 minute sprint. If you liked those, here are some extras: Vs. Sakuraba (NJPW Battle Final Tag 15 10.12.1995) W/ Nagata vs Sakuraba & Kanehara (NJPW New Japan Pro Wrestling Vs. UWF International 09.10.1995) W/ Yasuda vs Sakuraba & Kanehara (UWF-I All-Out Contend Battle 11.10.1995) W/ Malenko vs Shoichi Funaki & Yuki Ishikawa (NJPW Super Grade Tag League IV 09.10.1994) Kendo Kashin: Best of (Workrate) Kashin is a tricky costumer because his antics and gimmick don't always allow the wrestler underneath to shine effectively, not helped by the man being massively influenced by the styling of German Catch where sequences tend to repeat into themselves. That said, he does have great matches. Here are the best five for new viewers. Vs. Atlantis (Michinoku Pro 3rd Fukumen World League 24.08.2003) The best example of Kashin's heel antics playing up great with a strong babyface. Atlantis had to crawl through a match earlier in the card to reach this spot, namely after Kashin stole a win against him earlier in the World League, so he's weakened and Kashin has virtually all of the advantages. Absolutely brutal heel work by him throughout as he hones in on the arm and just generally is such a massive bastard: everything he does is spiteful and designed to hurt Atlantis in every measure possible. There's some comedy in the middle half that's fairly alright, but the ring work is the best feature about this, and Atlantis' comebacks are well done and get the crowd going. Great technical work paired with solid heel/face psychology made this a easy inclusion here. Atlantis is great, but Kashin's heat-seeking antics make this more than just a typical Japan lucha outing. Vs. Otani (NJPW Super Grade Tag League VII 08.12.1997) Realistically I could've put ANY of these two in a match together on here because they work so well, but this one is widely accepted to be the best one, namely because of the non-stop action paired with intelligent limb-targeting and counters. Otani's arm gets wrecked here and he doesn't just sell it all the way though the match, but he also baits out Kashin into bad positions by almost using the arm as bait to grab him into submissions of his own. Everyone in the crowd is hot for Kashin and he pulls out a strong babyface performance as he struggles with Otani's bombs and general sheer grit stacking on as time goes on, leading to more risky moves to try to finish things proper. It's a heated match, but it's also a smartly worked one that balances heat with technique in a great combination. Vs. Liger (NJPW Hyper Battle 1998 14.03.1998) Spoilers: Kashin is a big old asshole in this one, namely out of desperation to out-do his former mentor. This is enhanced with the whole 1997 storyline of Liger being in Kashin's corner and trying to help him against the more experienced bullies of the division, with Kashin just completely focused on burning all of that down just so he can get the big win. His shit is fairly minimalistic here but it works so well alongside the vicious nature of how he does it, as well as Liger selling for everything super effectively. It comes down to a matter of fatigue as Liger can't get his bombs in with a crappy arm (and even if he can, he can't make the pin soon enough to win) and Kashin just keeps hunting down the guy with more baggage. It's a great passing of the torch in a weird, twisted way. Vs. Minoru Tanaka (Best Of The Super Junior VI 21.05.1999) The most technical Kashin had been since his Young Lion days, this was a fantastic outing where the two just scramble on the mat over and over for their signature holds: Tanaka with his kneebars and Kashin with his armbreakers. Tanaka's strikes are a bit too light and tend to wiff a lot, but outside of that I thought this was a heated exchange, but also essentially just a spotshow of submissions as the lads just go back and forth with them over and over, with a lot of cheating from Kashin alongside brilliant transitions from Tanaka into offence. It's really a difference between a experienced heel and a hot-headed babyface in a fantastical race to the finish. Isn't going to be for everyone but lots of fun. Vs. Ryuji Hijikata (AJPW Summer Action Series 19.07.2003) Ryuji is mostly a pretty bleh Battlarts guy but he gets his big break here in the middle of Kashin's title reign to get his moment in the sun. Great bombs and strikes from the former as Kashin struggles to get any lead on him and outright gets destroyed in places because of just how much this guy can pull out. Don't expect a masterpiece but it's a great example of Kashin selling and bumping to get over a guy to the point where you think this random mid-card bloke might actually nab the belt for himself. No easy task, yet done here quite easily. Extras: Vs. Carl Greco (AJPW Champion Carnival 2003 12.04.2003) All of his German Catch footage (Vs Eckstein, Kovac) Vs. Fuchi (AJPW Grand Champion Carnival 13.04.2002) His 1997 Struggle series (Koji Kanemoto duo matches, Yamazaki and Liger tags) Vs. Suwama (19.09.2016) W/ Kojima vs. Fuchi & Kawada (AJPW Super Power Series 2003 25.03.2003) Kendo Kashin: Best of (Comedy) This is a bit harder to grade because comedy is subjective and I really, REALLY don't like most of his NOAH shit, half of which is the same gags over and over. There's enough to include here, through. Vs. Fuminori Abe (RJPW Strong Style Pro-Wrestling 17.12.2021) Abe is talented but he gets the memo here and decides to use that talent in wacky and goofy ways, which works for him at the start until it doesn't. He's also young enough to essentially fangirl over Kashin to the point of trying to copy his style, but of course failing at it as he can't outdo the master cheater. It's nothing special in terms of moves or whatever but there's some competent mat work and the finish makes sense given Abe's eccentric attitude. Fun stuff. Vs. Masato Tanaka (NOAH Gain Control in Nagoya 23.02.2022) Tanaka in a comedy match sounds dumb...and it is, but it surprisingly works well here. Kashin pulls out the usual gags but you can tell underneath kayfabe-wise that he's got it in for Tanaka and pulls out some more serious offence. Of course Tanaka is the straight man and doesn't give two shits about Kashin doing whatever he's doing, leading to a frantic and bizarre ending that felt right out of COVID-era wrestling. Not for everyone but I thought this was a solid watch given the two having decent chemistry and Tanaka being a trooper as per usual. Vs. Atsushi Aoki (AJPW 4th Royal Road Tournament 2016 (17.09.2016) The whole thing here is that the ref is massively biased against Aoki and allows Kashin to cheat, leading to a pretty dumb match where Aoki's just bitching about the unfairness or hitting some good moves. Kashin works well with what he's given and he's pretty entertaining when just pulling out nonsense for the win. Nothing much else to say, it's just a simplistic match format with some fun sequences. Vs. Super Sasadango Machine (DDT Judgement 2016 (21.03.2016) I could really put all of Kashin's DDT material here but this was so out there that it had to be added. This is a "Ultimate Royal Barbed Wire PowerPoint No Power Blast PWF Rules Match" which is pretty simple as you can imagine. First half is literally Sasadango selling merch via Powerpoint, the second is a weird trip of a match where it's just gag after gag. Not everything hits, but it's a lot of confusing nonsense as per DDT standards, and it's just a experience to try to figure out what is happening in places. Bizarre, strange....yep that's it. Vs. Toshiaki Kawada (G1 Climax 07.08.2005) Kashin really doesn't have any chance in hell of handling Kawada even in the state he's in, so Kashin just fucks around with him and keeps beating up a young Taichi on the outside casually when he's on the backend. There's some good work in here as Kawada has to keep control of things and succeeds: mostly. Kashin is as sneaky as ever though so we get a lot of fun character interaction between the pair as Kashin keeps messing around and his opponent keeps throwing bombs and huge shots to keep things under control. It's a simplistic dynamic but Kashin naturally has a lot of charm and the audience really got into this in the last minute or so. Interesting watch between two guys who'd you never think shared a ring with the other. Extras: The rest of Kashin's DDT reign W/ Abdullah the Butcher vs. Fuchi & Daijiro Matsui (AJPW Royal Road 30 Giant Battle 2nd 30.08.2002) W/ Nagata vs. Sasaki & Nakanishi (NJPW Nexess 03.05.2004) Vs. Necro Butcher Vs. Rob Van Dam (IGF Genome6 Toukon Bom-Ba-Ye 15.08.2008) Vs. Kenoh (NOAH Great Voyage 2021 In Yokohama 07.03.2021) Conclusion Hopefully this has helped to widen your spectrum of how capable Kashin is in terms of what he can do in the ring. It's probably not going to make him a top ten super pick for yourself, but I figured he was worth something considering his huge career and how much I'd watched of the guy. He's definitely not some hidden gem or anything but I firmly believe he's very much underlooked in many circles.

I think there's a case for Kojima given his longevity: even at 51 he's still having consistently good matches and hasn't shown any major signs of decline apart from not being as prone to big bumps and taking out some of the more agile moves out of his matches. Outside of that, he's still the same dude he was 20 years ago more or less, which can be a positive or a negative depending on how you look at it. It's just a shame that his Pro-Wres Love days are so unknown because Kojima was a supreme force when it came to keeping a crowd focused and loud, as well as being a really underrated carrier when the chips were down. Seriously, lots of great stuff once you start looking around. He's most definitely not superior to Nishimura or Fujita but that's another thing altogether.

To add on to this, there's a solid semi-squash in 1985 UWF with him against Mach Hayato as well which is a super strong outing. The first half is just Sayama eating up the guy until they go more into the usual routine after they build up his comeback for a good while. It's maybe not as bombastic as the above mentioned, but it's still a compelling performance given how ape-shit the crowd gets from him working on top.

I remember watching this for my UWF-I Taka deep dive and thinking it was fine enough, but definitely a carryjob by Kanehara. Taka tends to be kinda clumsy and stumbles over himself a few times, with his most strongest feature being how he uses his size to loom over the smaller guy and hammer him with slaps and brute strength; a attitude Taka would master in the early 2000's to become the peak monster that every company wanted. The match itself also tends to kinda keep going back in on itself with the same formula of Taka getting wrestled down, attempts at submissions and lots of rope breaks, with no real increase in tension or change in tactics. It's not a bad match per se but Kanehara was definitely the one that kept control and managed to make Taka look better than he actually was, a luxury that he wouldn't have often. His strikes also need a LOT of work, some of his kicks were downright horrible. I would suggest watching their 28.08.1992 and 20.12.1992 matches above this one, mainly because you can tell how much of a marked improvement both men have just looking at the sheer difference in quality between those matches and this. It's a good start to their multi-year rivalry but like with many starts of feuds, the best is yet to come.

Yeah I made that point as well: when Mox is engaged and all systems go he's amazing at building up crowd energy and getting everyone hype, but at the same time he kinda wears his emotions on his sleeve and if he doesn't care then you REALLY know it just by how he acts and wrestles. Him being apart of BCC is a bit of a weird choice but if it means we get more of his NJPW self where he's more grounded and focused on physicality without trash brawls then I'm all up for it tbh.

Here Surprisingly not half bad despite it falling into the usual lulls that his matches tend to do

Honestly, I feel like even Nakanishi has more dynamic performances than Tenzan does and got over the "big powerhouse" style way better than Tenzan did. People love the guy and he has his bright spots, but if you can ONLY get a "it's alright, I guess" quality from working with the God-King of carry-jobs Osamu Nishimura, you are not a very good wrestler. I appreciate more his tag stuff but there's honestly not a lot there worth really checking out. His singles stuff is even more barren but he tends to work best in short bursts of action where he can get all of his stiff shots without tiring out or gassing up. Those matches are executed rarely super well but there's some strong work when he's paired off with great talent that can take the reins. Top 100? Very doubtful. Even a NJPW only list would be somewhat debatable.

His NOAH stint for what it's worth is fairly enjoyable. The Funaki match he had this year in particular alongside the Nakajima stuff was fantastic and he's really worked as a UWF-throwback in tags and the like. It's not going to swing you towards him being a huge star or anything but it's a extra something towards his history of ring quality.

Lol yeah that was a goofy matchup and actually quite common with IGF cards, which generally felt like they were made at random: Stuff like Nakajima vs the Hurricane, Rikishi vs Orlando Jordan, Vader vs Fujinami, etc. This match in particular is perfect for RVD because he just gets to do spots with no consequence, which I'm not complaining about.

I've been currently on that deep-dive and I have a few thoughts thus far: #1: Kashin is a very sequence-based performer. He doesn't really improvise, he just has a set of things he wants to do and goes through them one by one. His routine might change somewhat based on him adding in a new element or two depending on who he's with, but his general formula stays the same. This makes him consistent in many low-card tags, but also complacent. #2: Kashin's comedy shtick is actually pretty good....mostly. He knows how to play on certain audience expectations and will do random things and mess with people for the sake of it. This makes him overbearing at points (to the point of being negative because even guys like Akiyama inevitably have to play along somewhat) but he definitely has a charm to how he does things, which I would say to the point that his post-prime career benefits from being a very reliable comedy worker. #3: Kashin is NOT a secretly amazing technical wrestler or masterful shoot guy under the comedy and gimmick. He's quite good at working technical sequences and exchanges, as well as having some fantastically unique offence built around that, but his shoot-work is mostly very mediocre to just outright bad (that 30 minute Fujiwara match still haunts my dreams) and I can't say he's ever had a overtly technical match that he has led or has been great. The best I can think of is his series with Tanaka and his gimmick debut against Kazuo Yamazaki or his match with Malenko. His best work comes from being able to work his more varied pro-wrestling work and mixing it with his technical foundations. #4: He's a surprisingly good carrier....when he cares, anyway. His work allows him to take control from less experienced peers and he's quite able at hiding limitations or making less than impressive wrestlers look good as he tends to bump good for them. He made El Samurai look somewhat impressive, which is something. #5: I've never seen a outright shit Kashin match when it was just him and someone else. Matches might be underwhelming or have issues in general, but I can honestly never say (beyond that Fujiwara match but that was WAY out of his depth for a rookie) it was him that made the match worse in quality. Even him carrying a rookie Fujita, he does that pretty damn well and gets him to probably the best exchanges he's had yet. His versatility in range is undeniable, from NJPW Jr sprints to DDT gimmick matches. Would I say top 100 as of now? Not yet, but I can definitely say that if his Jr work continues to be as solid as what I've seen, then a spot is definitely going to be available. He's pretty good when you look past the existing shit-flinging he still gets for the ROH stuff.

Atlantis is someone where even my VERY limited exposure to lucha had me impressed by him back when he got a legitimately fantastic match out of Kendo Kashin around about 2000 or so. Even through Kashin isn't the pits, that's a pretty big thing to have on your resume. I'll need to check out his stuff eventually.

Kenoh Kenoh is the ultimate utility talent. You want him to get over semi-good guys in tags? He can do that. You want him to do goofball comedy with a 50+ Kendo Kashin and make it work? Yeah, it's not hard. He can do stiff battles, longform bouts, hard-hitting affairs, heel cut-offs, UWF-style bouts, building underdog talent up for big comebacks, you name it. Hardcore bollocks with Great Muta? He'll knock it out of the park WHILE not making himself look bad when ultimately jobbing a loss. You want him cutting angry pissy promos that get yourself noticed out of everyone else during inter-promotional bouts, he's perfected that as well, even goofy DDT comedy stuff. He's literally fantastic in any field, and it's a bit of a shame that he hasn't had a proper main event run yet. That's half because of the above: Kenoh can literally pull any role off either at the bottom or top of the card, having fantastic matches with a sensational range of workers. You can look at his workrate stuff on one side, his stiff shit in the middle, and everything else on the other. His range dominates everyone else on the roster by a good mile. It also helps he's been having top notch matches for the last 6 years or so, to the point that simply throwing out 4 or 5 of them is a bit of a injustice to the guy. I'm typically not a fan of the "hit really hard over and over" style of wrestling but Kenoh's record proves he has a LOT more than just that to rely on. Vs. Taiji Ishimori (NOAH 31.01.2016) Vs. Masato Tanaka (11.11.2017) Vs. Eddie Edwards (22.12.2017) Vs. Kaito Kiyomiya (I could really put any of their matches on here but their early 2019 match is a lot of fun) Vs. Masakatsu Funaki (12.02.2021) Vs. Masaaki Mochizuki (26.09.2021) Vs. Go Shiozaki (11.02.2022)

That's why I think a lot of guys in the business (Flair, Jim Ross, Kofi Kingston) tend to say that Orton is such a great worker. He's not some workrate crazy spot machine but he's a clear master of the smaller things that tend to be neglected when actually going through matches but get noticed a ton by those who have been conditioned in the same manner. It's those fantastic fundamentals that allow him to work well with essentially anyone and everyone; I've seen forgettable and bad matches from Orton, but never because he was sloppy or bad in-ring, usually because he's either unmotivated or other reasons. That's something that you can only really say the same for very few other people.

His longest match in AEW in singles thus far was a sub-10 minute match that only picked steam in the last few minutes and used shortcuts. Maybe he can work a lighter series than average G1 outings but I doubt they would be any more effective than earlier Cobb outings.

Moose is one of IMPACT's biggest guys and probably one of the few consistently "big" main event acts they got, I doubt they would've let him go: would've been a good choice through. Lee would've been a great choice a few years ago but his cardio post-COVID has been really badly effected and I'm very sceptical he could work something like this given guys like Jeff Cobb in the past have gassed out hard.

AEW guys seem to be all booked up it seems lol. T-Hawk is busy in GLEAT/AJPW and Irie isn't much better in terms of commitments. Would've also liked some surprises as you said but a lot of this is simply down to logistics, the current restrictions are still pretty bad and AEW seem to be needing a lot of their bigger stars at the moment and can't afford to be throwing them around to big, exhausting commitments like the G1. I'm not sure who would even show up from Impact that would be appropriate. The structure of the G1 means that some guys will be inherently eating pins, so as much as it sucks to say, guys like Owens are essential

Through his peaks are obvious, Fuchi does suffer a bit from shrinking in quality matches for most of the 90's after the Tsuruta-Gun stuff. Not that he was bad, mind you, it's just that he was basically a mainstay of the AJPW uncle comedy 6-man stuff, so he never got much chances to do much of anything. The only times I recall him during this period being of any interest was a singles match with Albright and him teaming with NO FEAR in a fun underrated tag. Fuchi has his moments and shines particularly well in heated confrontations with strong opposing forces, but he's a very.....dry worker at times, even when young, at times by the numbers. He's a good wrestler with surprisingly strong mat-wrestling but few actually great matches from simply working on the mat. All of his best stuff is dramatic work revolving around him being a dickhead heel stretcher or a babyface underdog, but I would say he's never played the main man in any of his most well-known acts in that regard. I recall 2004 being the last year where I seen anything truly worthwhile (namely a Tenryu singles match that borrows from his bout with Inoki, for some reason) and his post-prime stuff only goes so far. As others have stated, Fuchi would be high on a "top 100 tag workers" but his singles stuff is not exactly bursting with top notch matches; this would've likely been not the case if his peak Jr runs were actually aired as opposed to piecemeal. That makes him annoying to rank properly, but he'll definitely be somewhere on my top 100 given his talent.

Introduction NO FEAR were one of the biggest tag teams during the downturn years of AJPW (1998-2000) and functioned as a platform for the mostly bland leopard-print Takao Omori and UWF-I export Yoshihiro Takayama to get their profile raised as they were pushed up the card. The original version of them was actually a trio alongside Gary Albright, whom would be booted out soon afterwards; they'd later become once again a trio when eternal undercarder Satoru Asako was lumped in with them (through he was so forgettable that even major wrestling databases don't even bother to acknowledge the guy as apart of the group). They were pretty much low-card lads for a while (doing worse than the team with GIANT KIMALA, so you know they stunk) and reserved for beating the likes of Masao Inoue over and over again until being pushed up, namely to get the belts off Hayabusa and co whom were leaving to go back to FMW. This thread is generally made to provide a microscope to some of their best stuff for beginner watchers, as well as why and how. The important thing to also mention at this point is that AJPW matches tended to be paced differently during the latter half of the 90's: most matches were shorter (some even sub-15 minutes: a main event featuring Vader and Steve Williams against the duo went sub-10!) and this most definitely applies to the majority of NO FEAR's matches, featuring a increased pace and focus on a wider spectrum of finishes beyond traditional big bombs into bigger bombs until someone stopped moving, mostly because that style had wrecked the Four Pillars over years of wear and tear. Sometimes basic submissions could take big wins after a while, sometimes smaller bombs were needed to get the job done; which you definitely also see from their matches. What you get, therefore, is a different pace and style out of NO FEAR's matches generally, which is always a plus. I'm going to bring up 5 critical matches from their two year (well one year and a half, technically) stint that are the most essential for people unfamiliar with the pair. AJPW is where I'm referencing because I know that field way more than anything afterwards. Gary Albright, Giant Kimala & Jun Izumida vs. Masahito Kakihara, Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (RWTL 14.11.1998) I kinda have to add this on because it's the beginning of the group: it's their very first match as a actual legit team. The dynamics are obviously still needing work, but this is still essential watching as defining their style: rough and VERY stiff. Taka and Omori do not hold anything back here and some of the strikes are outright reckless at times. Of course this features the underrated Violence Master Jun Izumida himself, who thrives on that kind of stuff. As such, we also get some good work between him and the trio, featuring some big spots out of the lad. It's nothing where I'd say it's a hidden gem or anything, but as a foundation for what else is to come, there's really nothing else that'll do the job better. Most of NO FEAR's style is articulated strongly here alongside a lot of extra beef, all willing to throw some big shots or take some back. If you can get past Giant Kimala being....well Giant Kimala, you'll probably enjoy this a fair bit. Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (Super Power Series 04.06.1999) NO FEAR's first big title win, and it's a pretty top notch match. This is firmly established early as a speed v power outing, with Hayabusa and co throwing out the spots alongside a nasty and focused heel duo who ground them down with rough strikes and good teamwork. AJPW Hayabusa tends to be really inconsistent, leaning from ok to fantastic: at times he seems not to really bother and coast off the very basics of what he can do. Thankfully he doesn't do that here, and Shinzaki is able to add in his own stuff alongside a willing Omori to great effect. This is their longest match on here (about 27 minutes) but it most assuredly doesn't feel that way despite a slow start. It's a good showcase of how NO FEAR work alongside a faster paced team and can't just rely on big beefy exchanges between the usual heavyweights. The lead to the finish in particular is where the really good work comes out from, with a lot of laser-focused attention on building suspense until one last push nabs it for the heel duo. Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (Summer Action Series 04.07.1999) I really could put any "Kobashi vs these two" on here because all of them are super solid matches, but I wanted to add only this one in particular because it's a personal favourite. Kobashi plays the big heavyweight of the match while Shiga is the weaker underdog that mostly bumps and sells until Kobashi saves the day.....is how you'd think this goes, but nope! Kobashi comes in here with a facemask due to a busted nose, and NO FEAR don't even waste time on starting sequences, polite technical work, instead Omori just goes into raking his face whenever he's in trouble, slapping on dirty facelocks to bend and wrench the injury, fist drops, knees to the head, etc. It's basic heel psychology, but it's done so well by the duo as they just go full shitheel mode with nearly every move being based around Kobashi's nose. Every cut-off to a comeback is via the nose, any continued work is turbo-racing to that nose like there's a magnet in it, not even bothering with subtleties. The great thing here is that Shiga: the usual punching bag of these kind of matches: has to go full offence mode, which I think Omori and co sell fantastically despite Shiga not always looking very good in terms of making his stuff look actually impactful. The build to that throughout as Shiga gets shoved around, smacked with a chair and generally eats complete shit is top notch heel work as they continually cut him off until the gas runs dry. Pair that alongside Takayama just easing into his role as the vicious brute enforcer with his knees and boots with Kobashi giving a great performance as this angry-ace who just can't stay in the game like he normally could to run through these two and you have, in my opinion, one of the top mid-card bouts of the year that builds and builds to a neat bow of a match. It helps that the main match of this event (a weird half-assed Holy Demon Army performance) was pretty crappy anyway. Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (Summer Action Series 23.07.1999) This is also for the (other) tag belts, held by the Movement duo after defeating Burning in a upset. This is added mainly because it's a very rare case of NO FEAR being outright babyfaces: the crowd aren't cheering Ace and co and they tend to reel back the heel antics to backup themselves as babyface natives. Omori gets wrecked early with a powerbomb/cutter, a suplex to the outside and a back suplex there as well to boot. Omori is the guy who sells and bumps for the duo while Taka tries his very best to save him with his boots and kicks. The comebacks are worked up to really well with Omori's selling and Ace's general ability to be immensely unlikeable, paired off with them using a lot of annoying interference to keep the advantage. Takayama has a SUPER loud comeback sequence that I think is one of the first signs of him being a major success: his ability to feed off the crowd's energy with huge dropkicks and tons of speed for a man of his mass and size looked awesome in action. Bart Gunn is a weak link? Absolutely, which makes this even better given how well everyone works around his limitations. NO FEAR pull off some great double-team work here as well, even pulling from the Brainbusters at one point with a assisted top rope piledriver. They get to a really hot finish that has the crowd really on the side of the bruisers as they nab the win. This workrate wise isn't great: there's some sloppy moments and a outright bad botch near the end: but I think this settles into a strongly paced match focused around selling and momentum switching. I think Ace deserves his flowers as well for being the heater of his duo and actually doing the important sequences mostly. Either way, if you wanna see how these two work a main event babyface match, check this out. Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (Super Power Series 09.06.2000) Sometimes you just have to go with the best. For me, this is most definitely it. This was apart of a one day tournament to decide the new champs of the tag belts after Vader and co couldn't defend them (the official reason to my knowledge was never disclosed but best guess is injuries, which is what they play it off as Misawa "breaking" Vader's arm during a mostly unaired house match) and the first few match were decent enough. However, a wrench had been thrown in the works as Taue had bumped badly for a Doomsday Device spot from Movement: landing badly on his shoulder, he was basically out for the rest of the match getting taped up, with him being significantly limited to mostly one arm. As such, the NO FEAR lads have to somewhat improvise with what they are given. What they do is fantastic: isolate the injured Taue and have Takayama take up his role as the annoying inference guy, consistently running in to stop Kawada even getting in. Kawada despite this gets in after they keep baiting him by tormenting his injured buddy, allowing them to do some big damage themselves with the numbers game. What really works here is how NO FEAR make this whole protracted control segment feel fresh and not at all dragged out. When Demon Army FINALLY get their shit together, it doesn't even last long before they get cut-off and back as the underdogs. Despite their rep, the duo are able to play convincing powerhouses slowly chopping down the elder trees bit by bit. Last sub-5 minutes are some utterly fantastic sequences as even Taue goes "fuck it" and starts just going as hard as he possibly can, which Omori and co play up really well. The finish is rather unconventional but it works for how desperate the whole second half feels, going literally right down to the smallest of moves that manages to take the win. It's a perfect example of these two on the main stage with everything to play for just going at it at the peak of them as a threat. Yes, the Demon Army are as great as always, but I think the newer guys fight for a worthy position alongside them here. If you can watch one match out of the five, see this one. Conclusion One thing to make clear is that these are not the ONLY great matches these two have had: I haven't even gone into the Burning and Untouchables feuds or some of their underrated stuff against the Kimala/Izumida duo or just generally good matches across the board that could've made it on here. I wanted to make this as simplistic as possible given all of these matches require no prior watching or context. NOAH also has them run for a good while and get some great performances out of fairly mediocre talent (Rikio) but that's a story for another day. I hope this has helped ever so slightly in your viewing opinions of these two, because while Omori is generally pretty hit and miss overall, his NO FEAR stuff is by far his most consistent he's ever been: either that's his natural ability as a tag guy or Takayama being around is up to you.

He got a contact with WWE around about the time he still had Chikara and other indie dates booked and he essentially cancelled them all, which led them to rescind the contract for a year or so if memory serves