Shiro Koshinaka

[Loss]

Koshinaka is a guy I've gotten into quite a bit since starting on the yearbooks. Considering he has a pretty good body of work and some longevity, what is it that keeps him from being talked about at the same level as the Three Musketeers?

 

Also, didn't he train under Baba? Is there a reason he jumped to New Japan?

[kjh]

Juniors Koshinaka didn't go down very well in the DVDVR poll (perhaps unfairly so). I think a large part of it is mainly due to being a mid level guy and his career just fizzling out at the end.

[El-P]

Koshinaka is a guy I've gotten into quite a bit since starting on the yearbooks. Considering he has a pretty good body of work and some longevity, what is it that keeps him from being talked about at the same level as the Three Musketeers?

 

Also, didn't he train under Baba? Is there a reason he jumped to New Japan?

Yes, Kosh was a AJ trainee. No idea why he jumped to NJ. It's pretty ironic that he would not be talked as the same level as the Three Musketeers, because for the longest time Kosh was considered much better than either Muto or Chono. I know I've lost track with the trend of the days, and maybe there has been a backlash against 80's Kosh (for whatever reason...), but really, last time I checked, Kosh was the reliable NJ heavy to get a good match with.

As far as puch goes, he would simply never got ahead of the three Musketeers because he was a former junior, and former junior don't become big heavyweight star unless your name is Tatsumi Fujinami. He was destined to be just like Hase, a good upper midcard hand. He had shitloads of good matches and feuds, especially against guys who weren't the greatest workers (maybe John can jump in and talk about the super fun Kosh feud with the martial arts guys).

He was also Choshu's assistant booker at one point I believe.

[jdw]

Yes, Kosh was a AJ trainee. No idea why he jumped to NJ.

I think it was because Misawa was going to get the push, and NJPW promised him a push if he jumped to them.

 

 

It's pretty ironic that he would not be talked as the same level as the Three Musketeers, because for the longest time Kosh was considered much better than either Muto or Chono. I know I've lost track with the trend of the days, and maybe there has been a backlash against 80's Kosh (for whatever reason...), but really, last time I checked, Kosh was the reliable NJ heavy to get a good match with.

Kosh worked a pretty modern style as a junior in terms of selling. That was going to get crapped on. The thing is... I'm not so sure that Kosh's consistancy in sustained selling in 1986 is all that different than say Flair or say Savage in 1986.

 

 

As far as puch goes, he would simply never got ahead of the three Musketeers because he was a former junior, and former junior don't become big heavyweight star unless your name is Tatsumi Fujinami. He was destined to be just like Hase, a good upper midcard hand. He had shitloads of good matches and feuds, especially against guys who weren't the greatest workers (maybe John can jump in and talk about the super fun Kosh feud with the martial arts guys).

He was also Choshu's assistant booker at one point I believe.

That pretty much sums up Kosh's opportunities: the Three Musketeers + Sasaki were always pushed as heavies from the start. Kosh was one of the long line of guys to "grow out of" the junior division, not of them ever really making it higher than Hase and Kosh went. Fujinami was a different beast: the junior division was created for him as a place to park him and give him high profile matches until it was time to push him as a heavy, where he always was being viewed as Inoki's heir (not that Inoki wanted to give up the crown).

 

I don't know who the comp for Kosh is. The one that pops into mind is Arn Anderson. Hash, Mutoh and Chono were the Flair's who were going to get pushed. Kosh was the Arn who went about his business putting on matches the fans enjoyed, often in support of Hash, Mutoh and Chono. Only difference: Kosh has a rather big number of good singles matches to point to, while Arn is kind of sparse in that nature... even when having good opponents to work with in throwaway matches. Pointed out several times:

 

1995-96 G1 Main Events / Final Matches On Cards

 

08/11/95 Shiro Koshinaka pinned Keiji Mutoh (15:47).

08/12/95 Keiji Mutoh pinned Masa Chono (11:36).

08/13/95 Masa Chono pinned Shiro Koshinaka (11:10).

08/14/95 Shinya Hashimoto pinned Masa Chono (10:05).

08/15/95 Keiji Mutoh pinned Shinya Hashimoto (24:08) to win the 1995 G-1 Climax

 

08/02/96 Riki Choshu pinned Shinya Hashimoto (17:14)

08/03/96 Shiro Koshinaka pinned Kazuo Yamazaki (13:50).

08/04/96 Shiro Koshinaka pinned Masa Chono (22:10).

08/05/96 Keiji Mutoh beat Shiro Koshinaka (11:59) via submission.

08/06/96 Riki Choshu pinned Masa Chono (13:45) to win the 1996 G-1 Climax.

 

10 cards.

 

Kosh went on last in 5 of those. Three straight nights in on stretch.

 

Sasaki went on last 0 times in that stretch.

 

That's not saying that Kosh was pushed as hard as the 3M+1. He wasn't. But he was a valued reliable hand. Fans like him, and the office had confidence in his being able to pull off singles matches. Not a guy ever pushed up to a major Dome match, and not really a main eventer on the big cards in the balance of the years. But they knew had a valueable guy they could go to in certain situtations, and he'd deliver for the most post.

 

So in a way, an Arn type, just having stuff like those singles matches.

 

John

[Ditch]

what is it that keeps him from being talked about at the same level as the Three Musketeers?

There's a case for him as a better worker than Chono and Mutoh, but he wasn't nearly the star they were, and he doesn't have enough MOTYCs to his name to be a pimped midcarder.

[KrisZ]

How bout a comparison to Satanico especially after 1990 when Kosh led many different factions as Satanico led many versions of Los Infernales with both being almost top tier singles guys but not at the top.