Ma Stump Puller

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

Kakihara was low-key a VERY strong worker in All-Japan, especially in being able to carry the load in matches with guys who theoretically should've completely outclassed him: guys like Kobashi, Ogawa, Kawada, etc. He even has a pretty kick-ass match with Inoue at one point. Just a all-rounder in terms of utility, being able to be slotted in practically anywhere and do well with what he's given. His strengths come mostly from his UWF work (which while hit and miss, was pretty good for that era) but he just doesn't have a lot to work with beyond All-Japan and some good UWF stints. It's a little unfair given his traumatic injury basically cuts his career short before he could've perhaps done more, but wear and tear in general was really effecting his quality to work to what he was in prior years, so either way I don't think his later career has a lot of big upsides worth bringing up. He's good, just his peak was way too short and wasn't setting the world on fire anyway. He got better at pro-wrestling faster than Takayama did but Taka eventually surpasses him by 1999/2000 when he's just on a tear with NO FEAR.

This is a really interesting point to make. I know some people will have their own preferences for how they rank wrestlers and whatnot, but charisma is always going to play a factor in selection for the vast majority of people given how incredibly important it is. It's not just promos or character work; it's also getting people invested in what you can do in-ring and how capable someone can be in storytelling a narrative throughout. With a guy like Sydal, I felt like he was always a gatekeeper: great hand, can consistently give out good work in a number of different areas, but ultimately can't really do anything beyond that. He's kinda like a cruiserweight Ziggler where all the pieces should come together, but they really never do. We can moan about guys like Hogan all day and night for dozens of reasons, but his ability to make you pay attention to him in-ring and be more memorable means that the vast majority of people can cite his top matches off the cuff despite his limitations, because he can get investment out of his work. Doing big bumps is one thing, but making them MATTER is another. Rey would take big bumps but he'd sell his ass off and his comebacks were almost always timed perfectly to get the crowd worked up. As you say, Sydal just kinda doesn't have that inviting factor in if that makes any sense

Good in short bursts: he's a solid act when it comes to the big spots and innovative work in that regard. It's just everything else that tends to drag him down in terms of his overall style. He's got a big tendency to drag matches down into plodding technical work, which almost always feels like filler between the cool stuff. His best matches for me are when his opponent (s) is able to get him away from that and instead work on more interesting stuff instead, like selling his ass off after a stiff headbutt makes him bleed like mad or beating down a underdog. He's someone who needs to be led to those kind of matches through, because him alone tends to drift into some meandering exchanges. FAR better in tags as a result typically because of that factor He'd get a top 100 slot in terms of longevity (like he's 50+ and he's STILL having good performances for his age) but in general, I don't see it.

Nagata beats out Hashimoto when it comes to consistency by a country mile through, and I'd say he's FAR better at carrying lesser talents given his big title reigns typically had him have to carry some downright bad guys to presentable stuff. Obviously if you were to weigh them by charisma or just raw intensity that would be a whole other deal but Nagata has a LOT to work with, and most of it is arguably past his prime

I'd stick to his pro-wrestling stuff. Just from my experience UWF Taka is mostly pretty dire from what I've watched. There's a few solid bouts I could recommend but a lot of it is just sub-par. Through he does get better with time (he has a pretty good match with Kakihara in the short lived KINGDOM promotion) it's a definite low in his career.

Up: Tiger Mask: I had already gone through a fair chunk of his career but seeing his short-lived UWF 1.0. stint has really brightened his case for me. Legit world-class striker and always seems to deliver his end of any match he's in, even when wrestling random World of Sport and American job guys. He hasn't really ever had a bad match that was because of him alone. Yoshinari Ogawa: Legitimately half-carrying NOAH's Jr division at points from his singles and tag work. Every year has him somehow pull out a bunch of pretty solid matches out of his hat despite his neck injury and age. Looking at his older stuff, I keep finding great bit-part roles out of him despite being with guys who should theoretically just completely overshadow him. I think seeing him having a great exchange with a young rookie Kanemaru in a 6-man tag with the likes of Kobashi and Akiyama being around says a lot about how well polished a wrestler he is beyond the moves. Kendo Kashin: His modern work is mostly dire but I'm actually half-shocked by how great he was when he gave a damn. He was never anyone I'd say would be full of hidden gems but his ability to play a prick spoiler heel that can steal matches away in a blink of a eye is a very entertaining gimmick for the time. Pair that up with a strong rookie career before the Kashin gimmick gets set up and a fairly good Muto-era AJPW run (when it matters) and I think there's a lot more discussion about the guy being on here than you think. It helps that he can carry matches that shouldn't be even worth a sniff into something half-decent. Masakatsu Funaki: A true master of the sub-10 minute match, but has shown with his current NOAH National stint that he can still go pretty great for his age, combined with a lot of simple, smart technical wrestling alongside some smooth, stiff strikes. It helps that his format is a breath of fresh air compared to the "epic" format that's grown stale immensely over the years. Down: Satoshi Kojima: While I still think Koji has a decent enough career, his limitations when it comes to structuring matches and carrying individuals become really clear after a while. He can't get truly great matches from good opponents, and he's always going back on his old, inconsistent selling days as more than a clutch than anything else. Him getting pumped up for a comeback is pretty cool the first time you've seen it, but he does this way too often to be of any novelty. Yoshihiro Takayama: This is mostly referring to his UWF work, which is.....kinda dire in places. He's consistently the weaker man of whoever he's wrestling with and unless he's paired with someone who can drag a great match out of him, his sloppy strikes and downright clunky motions at points make him someone who is mostly having alright but very middling matches, even all the way up to the post-NJPW/WAR invasion angles. Him getting jobbed out to Jado was a definite low-point, as was him getting legit potato'd by a angry Bad News. Trevor Murdoch: Despite a fairly good title chase for the NWA title, his actual run was shockingly bad and he just struggled to get a actual good match against anyone in particular. His limitations are very overt and giving him the main event scene didn't help things at all. Maybe it's just NWA's mostly shoddy roster but there was definitely a lot of issues in terms of actually having a match that looked like it mattered. Rusher Kimura: I still don't get the hype around this guy and watching more of his supposed "prime" just makes me even more confused. He's a good brawler for the time but his matches against some top-notch talent like Jumbo and co are almost always underwhelming and frankly boring in places. He's benefited from his reputation as a bloody cage fighter a ton but the matches that are still intact don't show anything that hasn't been surpassed a dozen or so times already. I feel like him being this legendary super performer is mostly because of hype and him being paired with guys like Mighty Inoue and Momota, who were actually fairly talented beyond their more-well known comedy leanings. Either way, I don't get it.

Would also suggest a few more guys I've found recently: S級7位 キング Has a ton of fairly random but interesting Japanese fancams and obscure matches. Wrestlistory Weird one: been uploading purely WWF stuff for five years before dumping out a ton of very early UWF 1.0. fancams and undercard outings. Some really interesting insights here. Jolana Doe Youtube channel of the awesome PuroArchive, who uploads and preserves lots of completely unheard of and very rare Japanese indie shows. A lot of stuff that isn't online at all....until now. This is already on the OP but Archive.com is not the easiest site to watch stuff on. John Gjoni Posts a lot of random stuff, but namely American indies and Japanese promotions like IGF, FMW, etc.

His gimmick restricted his ring abilities a lot I feel. Watch his Unabomber SMW or PWFG work and he's a LOT more varied than you'd expect: seeing him doing a springboard leg drop in the match with Undertaker was bonkers. That said, for a guy his size and weight, being able to do stuff like top rope shit is most assuredly not easy, let alone doing it consistently for 15+ years. Longevity wise, he stays the same in terms of quality until about 2012, with his last truly solid match being the 2014 one with Bryan (through how much of that you can apply to his opponent is up for debate....) but after that he's mostly just bad and sluggish, with even Cena (who's usually quite good at monster bouts) struggling to get anything good out of him. If you made a WWE only list, he'd definitely be on it given his numerous memorable feuds, segments and general consistency over the years, with his best work being the early 2000's where he was less constrained by the gimmick/trashy booking (mostly....) and was actually having a lot of enjoyable work. The catch-wrestling match he has with Big Show on a random 2006 RAW is a definite highlight as well lol.

I don't find his style all that impressive and his actual host of matches that I can honestly say were made strong in the first place by him alone are few and far between. He's not bad, but his cutesy pseudo-MMA stuff just makes me wince half the time because it's just kinda goofy sometimes in how he executes certain things and how overtly flashy it doesn't need to be. He's tolerable in tags but I could never find him as someone that I can't think of at least 150 wrestlers that just completely lap him in terms of quality. His selling is all over the place as well unless the other guy is roping him in hard to do so.

Probably one of the bigger ones to watch out for in the next few years. She's already great given her resume, it's just a matter of if that momentum continues or not.

Bro this guy was a godsend on the IGF cards, Christ. One of the few guys who was having consistently good matches with whoever Inoki wanted to have one, even random lads like the (fairly limited at the time) Tadao Yasuda, a old Tank Abbott or lads like the unfortunately named Predator or Jerome Le Banner, he's at least getting a decent or entertaining match out of those guys. Frankly I'd stick him on purely for handling that but I can acknowledge his wasted potential as well, but that's mostly because he was overpushed and wasn't really challenged much because Inoki kept sticking him in Goldberg-style streaks for the most part.

Honestly is way better than Suzuki when it comes to late-game showings. Suzuki tries to do "big match" formula bouts a lot and it tends to backfire and make him look bad as he's mostly a filler work guy (don't know either to blame him or NJPW's general structure for that) with honestly not a lot of tricks up his sleeve to achieve such a effect. Funaki just does short-ass matches and it WORKS so well for him because of how he wrestles in general, being able to work a lot of intensity alongside legit super-athletic mat-crawling and strikes. There's no real predictability to his formula as any submission or bomb could realistically catch him the win. It does say a lot when his Triple Crown after 2 or so years back in the ring is leagues better than Suzuki's run despite Suzuki having worked way longer by comparison. Funaki is also quite well versed when it comes to carrying guys to compelling matches if need be. A lot of his indie matches are against random dudes who are competent but not great, and he's able to balance his style out to allow them the room to work their stuff in while obviously being booked very strong given his rep all while working mostly sub-10 minute matches. Getting a old and battered 49 year old Otsuka to a half-decent match while his ARM WAS BROKEN was a bonkers feat when I watched it and I still can't believe they let that go after that happens, but to the point where Otsuka is hurling Funaki around with German suplexes and Giant Swings. You gotta see that to believe it. Go back to his really early stuff and see him working a pretty good series of matches with a green Shamrock back in PWFG despite working huge ass length matches with the guy. I've never taken a huge deep dive into the guy but there's plenty of quality work out there alongside a fairly fun NOAH stint at the moment to consider him on the top 100.

No problem! Here's some of the dates for stuff I'd recommend in terms of specific Triangle of Power matches: W/ Albright vs Misawa/Akiyama (the upset that gets them going) (18.05.1997) W/ Albright vs GET (Summer Action Series 25.07.1997) W/ Albright and Lacrosse vs Holy Demon Army + Honda (Summer Action Series 22.08.1997) W/ Albright vs Misawa/Akiyama (Summer Action Series 26.08.1997) W/ Albright and Lacrosse vs Duncum Jr/Smith + King (October Giant Series 21.10.1997) W/ Albright vs Holy Demon Army (Excite Series 28.02.1998) W/ Albright vs New Triangle of Power (Takayama/Kakihara) (25th Anniversary 01.05.1998) W/ Hawkfield vs Inoue/Omori (Super Power Series 12.06.1998: Doc hard carries this one)

People tend to credit his mid-90's work as sensational (which it is) but I'd also direct people to his late 90's and even his early 2000's work before the first cancer scare. He goes through a very obvious decline from just how intense he was in his prime but I found that has been exaggerated to a great extent given the sheer wealth of quality matches he puts on after that timeframe. Him and Ace have a pretty good run as big tag threats in 96, a awesome stint in helping Albright get legit in the Triangle of Power stable during 97/98, concluding with a REALLY solid match against GET that arguably overshadows the Taue/Misawa main event that night. Even if he does start to slow in the years afterwards, he's still very well done when it counts: multiple big brawls with the Demon Army, a omega underrated Southern brawl with Omori in 2000, capping off with a surprisingly strong series of matches with 2001 Muto, getting one of his better matches during that year's Champion Carnival. It's nothing that'll make him go from a top 50 to a top 10 overnight, but it definitely helps to reinforce his standing and show his qualities weren't just grounded in the era he was in.

Him and Tiger Mask work a good European Rules match in 95 that was surprisingly fun to watch and played off their prior encounters pretty well. Not a sensational top 10 ballot pick for his best hits but a solid outing for a guy who mostly fell off the radar after the cancer scare. Might be a rogue choice if you are especially keen of the 80's Jr heavyweight scene. Certainly a great opponent for Tiger Mask and remained so arguably up until his very last few matches despite his rust, even if he always kinda awkwardly fit in with his opponents (and at times could drag with his long technical work) but his heel work was always very snug and worked with a wide range of opponents. Never anything sensational for the most part but a very competent worker that proved he could fit into basically any slot needed. If consistency is the big ranking for a top 100, he might just squeeze on.