Kensuke Sasaki

[Superstar Sleeze]

I have never seen a bad Kensuke Sasaki match. It has nothing to do with my 4 match sample size. I really liked his performance in the 1990 tag team, Dome '95 against Hashimoto, and these matches with Tenryu and Kawada. The timing of his entry to wrestling reminds me of Jun Akiyama. He is a bit younger than the Three Musketeers and he is pushed in the tag ranks and bubbling on the undercard. I feel like him and Akiyama never truly reached their potential; they seemed groomed to be leaders of their respective promotions going into the 2000s. Sasaki always reminded me of Choshu with an even better mullet. I think Sasaki has a great look and really has a presence as a total badass. I was hoping more people could chime with some more excellent Sasaki matches.

 

IWGP Champion Kensuke Sasaki vs Toshiaki Kawada - 10/00 Tokoyo Dome Non-Title

 

Even though All Japan was gutted by the formation of NOAH. The fact All Japan retained Toshiaki Kawada was enough to make the New Japan vs All Japan feel like a big deal at this October Tokyo Dome show. One thing that I picked up on rewatch was that crowd actually threw shit at Kawada during his entrance. It was that sort of visceral reaction that really sets the tone for this match. It is not about titles. It is about pride. The two biggest puroresu companies finally clashing. This is the match that should be about egos, machismo, bravado, and posturing. That what it delivers in spades a spectacle of two surrogates fighting the battle for Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba trying to win honor and glory not just for themselves but their promotion and in a lot ways their family. This match reflects that. It is not a championship match with respect. It is not violent hate-filled brawl. It is two men taking each other's best shot and seeing who stands last. With all the moving pieces, Mutoh to All Japan, Hashimoto's Zero-One and Sasaki & Kawada as freelancers we see a lot of these matches because this is how Dream Matches are performed in Japan. It is not Gaijin vs Native. It is not veteran Native vs young lion. It is two superstars clashing and it is a style that leaves a lot to be desired. It can come off as more of a ritual than a match sometimes. It is like a game of bloody kunckles, you are trying to outlast your opponent and win in a very specific fashion. It is not logical because rituals are not logical. It comes off like the old practice of dueling. It is how a man wins honor.

 

The match starts off with a hotly contested lock-up. Steve Austin just got finished telling me a shitty lockup is a great way to start off a shitty match. Well if the converse is true then this match is going to rock. Sasaki lands an early cheapshot with a closed fist to Kawada's head, who does that perfect jelly leg sell. He asks the ref "Did he just do that?". I absolutely love next segment as they try to grapple each other in gritty and sloppy fashion. It feels like a real fight two warriors jockeying for position. Then they kick it into the part of the match I expected. They just start chopping and slapping the shit out of each other. Kawada stands in front and literally dares him to hit him. These were monstrous chops dangerously close to the throat. Kawada ends the ritual with a closed fist, the ultimate cheap shot in Japan.

 

This begins the Kawada heat segment, which is actually pretty restrained. He hits Sasaki hard, but there is a level of arrogance to it that Kawada is very good at projecting. Kawada fails to put him away with a back drop driver (the only head drop of the match), enziguiri or the stretch plum. This is the best selling I have seen so far from this era as they are really putting over the toll of the moves by the space between the stretch plum and this powerbomb attempt. He gets back dropped out of his powerbomb attempt. He misses a kick and Sasaki evens the match with a wicked clothesline. Sasaki begins his babyface comeback that does not feel that energetic, but more like his own heat segment. He does that weird armdrag thing I saw him do against Tenryu. Lariat only gets two. He puts Kawada in the Scorpion Deathlock twice, but can not render a submission. What may make it feel like a heat segment is that Sasaki is really selling his exhaustion and thus is not moving as fast during his comeback as you normally would see a babyface. Sasaki breaks the second Scorpion out of sheer exhaustion. That is really tremendous. Sasaki just lying face down while the ref taps him is a great visual.

 

They go back to the bread and butter. They just start hitting lariats on each other. Each on are on jelly legs, Kawada does this great sell where he kind of stumbles and then gets hit. It is not logical, but it is a display of honor. Sasaki crushes him with a lariat the plum of sweat off Kawada is impressive. All Japan delayed sell allows Kawada to get a big boot rendering it even once again. Double clothesline. Sasaki gains an advantage, but in his exhaustion collapses on a simple suplex attempt. Kawada takes advantage with repeated enziguiris that rock Sasaki, now Sasaki channeling Misawa swats Kawada with a lariat to the leg. As he revs up, the New Japan crowd begins to cheer and Sasaki runs straight into Kawada's enziguiri and just like that Kawada is victorious.

 

This is an amazing war of attrition that took me three times to get. The first time, I actually thought match was abrupt. I was not paying attention to the selling at all. I was just watching the striking and thought it was weird there were no suplexes. The second time, I thought it was underwhelming because I could not piece together the transitions and once again not to the selling. Sometimes, I get stuck in this offensive mindset. Now, I see the War of Attrition. It is not abrupt at all; the match could have ended five minutes earlier. This was a war and they were selling it that way. The battle for honor not just for yourself but for your company and how they wove that through. To me, this is your ultimate "Can I take your best shot match?". There is no weakening of a body part to avoid your opponent's best shot. In fact, they welcome his best shot. It is not smart wrestling. It is really fucking stupid wrestling. But then again Pride is a really fucking stupid thing. ****1/2

[NintendoLogic]

The whole wrestling match as macho pissing contest style of work is not my cup of tea at all, and Kenskay is pretty much the epitome of that. So yeah, I kind of hate him.

[alexoblivion]

I haven't watched them in a while, but I always thought his matches against Nagata were fun.Can't really say he's a guy I seek out though.

[Death From Above]

Sasaki had some good stuff in the early 90's, then was really bad until nearly the turn of the century. Got good for a little while and then Japanese wrestling went off a cliff and I lost track of it all. His early stuff he tended to play "power wrestler but still underdog to bigger stars" and he was good at that, but then he gets into Invincible Power Slam Man phase and it doesn't really come back together again for me for years.

 

Also, there should totally be a Japanese wrestler named Invincible Power Slam Man.

[rzombie1988]

I didn't really like him until his rejuvenated 2004 run.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I forgot I had seen Sasaki vs Kobashi from 2005, but I saw that in 2006-ish and dont remember thinking much of it. Yeah, it is definitely a style that leaves a lot to be desired, but I think it can be rationalized in certain contexts especially in interpromotional wars when pride is more at stake than a championship or veteran vs young lion match. I just think Sasaki looks like an absolute badass when a lot of the Japanese guys don't give off that vibe from just looking at them. I am a person that is big into aesthetics and presentation. Sasaki has a great look. Im looking forward to some of the Takayama matches that are on the ballot to see how they match up.

[MikeCampbell]

I pretty much hate him too.

[Dylan Waco]

I'm interested to see so many people who hate him. I"m largely indifferent to Sasaki, but I'd take him over the vast, vast majority of allegedly "great" Japanese wrestlers active today

[WingedEagle]

Wow. This year's G1 alone had more very good to great matches than I can recall over the course of Sasaki's career.

[Dylan Waco]

I liked this years G1 a good bit, but I'm not sure there was more than a half dozen matches in the entire tournament I would call very good or great. Lots of stuff I thought was decent or pretty good though.

 

In any case I'm actually sort of confused about how Sasaki is a guy people can hate. He's fairly inoffensive, albeit not particularly interesting. He's also someone I see as sort of a front end guy in a lot of the bomb throwing/meaty heavyweight stuff that people went batshit for in the G1

[Smack2k]

I think WCW's total misuse of him may have something to do with some people's dislike of him....they really made him look bad.

[Cox]

Wait, what?

[NintendoLogic]

In any case I'm actually sort of confused about how Sasaki is a guy people can hate. He's fairly inoffensive, albeit not particularly interesting.

The funny thing is, this is how I feel about Tanahashi.

[Dylan Waco]

Tanahashi has terrible, terrible offense and is nowhere near compelling enough in any other way to make up for it.

 

I don't think Sasaki is really terrible at anything

[NintendoLogic]

I don't want to turn this into a Tanahashi thread, but I don't understand what's so terrible about his offense. I guess the Sling Blade is kind of weak, but everything else looks fine. As for Sasaki, I guess I just don't get the appeal of guys taking turns chopping each other for ten minutes.

[Alucard]

I always loved the Power Warrior run with Hawk.

[Dylan Waco]

I don't want to turn this into a Tanahashi thread, but I don't understand what's so terrible about his offense. I guess the Sling Blade is kind of weak, but everything else looks fine. As for Sasaki, I guess I just don't get the appeal of guys taking turns chopping each other for ten minutes.

I've talked about Tanahashi's offense in detail before and can't imagine how anyone could think it was good. The fact that a lot of the same people who slam Cena for his offense, praise Tanahashi is even more befuddling.

 

I'm not a fan of the long chop exchanges either, to the point where I was often viciously smeared by puroholic's in the mid-00's because I dared question the sanctity of those exchanges. Having said that I am a bit miffed about how what Sasaki was doing is all that different from what someone like Ishii does. I like Ishii better and think he's a much stronger worker on the margins, but I also assume if someone liked a ton of the G1, they probably really liked something like Ishii v. Makabe (which I liked a good bit) and I don't see how that was all that different from a high end freelance era Sasaki match.

[WingedEagle]

I don't want to turn this into a Tanahashi thread, but I don't understand what's so terrible about his offense. I guess the Sling Blade is kind of weak, but everything else looks fine. As for Sasaki, I guess I just don't get the appeal of guys taking turns chopping each other for ten minutes.

I've talked about Tanahashi's offense in detail before and can't imagine how anyone could think it was good. The fact that a lot of the same people who slam Cena for his offense, praise Tanahashi is even more befuddling.

 

I'm not a fan of the long chop exchanges either, to the point where I was often viciously smeared by puroholic's in the mid-00's because I dared question the sanctity of those exchanges. Having said that I am a bit miffed about how what Sasaki was doing is all that different from what someone like Ishii does. I like Ishii better and think he's a much stronger worker on the margins, but I also assume if someone liked a ton of the G1, they probably really liked something like Ishii v. Makabe (which I liked a good bit) and I don't see how that was all that different from a high end freelance era Sasaki match.

 

I'm a bit confused. You love Cena. I've got no problem with that, but what part of Tanahashi's offense is so terrible vis a vis Cena's? The fact that his strikes don't look like they'll concuss his opponent? You also recently touted the slapfest in Cena/Bryan at Summerslam as a highlight. I agree that that spot can be overdone, and personally found it crossed the threshold of ridiculous in Ishii/Shibata, but outside of Kojima matches where its one of his signature spots (which the crowd goes wild for and thus more than justifies it for me, especially given its hardly a high risk spot), where is it overdone these days?

 

Otherwise, I'm not sure where that kind of contempt comes from. On the recent WC pod, you mentioned you haven't exactly followed NJ that closely. Unless you're simply opposed to someone who's not throwing faux-MMA strikes, maybe go back and rewatch some of this stuff. If you want Frye/Takayama from your strikers, then you're probably going to dislike most pro wrestling these days. With good reason.

 

I've got nothing against Sasaki. He's a guy who's produced some very good matches over his career but otherwise hasn't exactly stood out much over his career as an exception career. Hell, your nemesis Tanahashi may have produced more classics in the last 2 years on his own. He just hasn't rattled many brains.

[Dylan Waco]

When I get out of work I'll start a Tanahashi v. Cena thread so as not to muddle this down with non-Sasaki talk. I"ll also respond to the Sasaki related stuff at that point, but I think the Tana/Cena stuff is a conversation worth having.

[WingedEagle]

Sounds great. Glad to see someone is laboring today. To keep it on point, I'll be avoiding doing my best Kensuke while the wife tries to get me to watch Scandal, and then disc 26 of the '92 Yearbook.

[S.L.L.]

I liked this years G1 a good bit, but I'm not sure there was more than a half dozen matches in the entire tournament I would call very good or great. Lots of stuff I thought was decent or pretty good though.

 

In any case I'm actually sort of confused about how Sasaki is a guy people can hate. He's fairly inoffensive, albeit not particularly interesting. He's also someone I see as sort of a front end guy in a lot of the bomb throwing/meaty heavyweight stuff that people went batshit for in the G1

Hell, the match with Kobashi is basically Ground Zero for modern heavyweight puro. Modern heavyweight puro fans not liking Sasaki is like an LMFAO fan not liking Digital Underground. Why do you like the mediocre, watered-down version of an act but not the original?

[NintendoLogic]

For what it's worth, I can't stand Ishii either.

[Timbo Slice]

I like Sasaki for the most part. A lot of his big singles matches from 2000 on actually stand up really well, and I've lightened up on the Kobashi match over time.

 

Still a part of perhaps the best NJPW heavyweight tag match ever. Has two of the best Dome main events ever vs. Tenryu and Kawada. Kobashi match is basically a co-main event, too. Totally underrated tag wrestler in my eyes. Now, on the grand scale, do I put him amongst the best in Japan? I saw him in like that 4th/5th/6th tier or so when people were talking about the tiers of great wrestlers.

 

In fact, I prefer him to someone like Hase, who is a contemporary and doesn't have Sasaki's resume when it comes to big matches. Granted, Hase never got the push Sasaki did, but from my recollection, Hase seems to be liked a lot more than Sasaki, which stemmed more from people still being big fans of his with the Steiners tags, his limited AJPW work and the Hashimoto title match.

[Dylan Waco]

For what it's worth, I can't stand Ishii either.

That makes more sense.

 

I mean I like Ishii and think he's easily the best guy in NJPW on any given night, but if you don't like one it makes sense you wouldn't like the other

[Dylan Waco]

I've got nothing against Sasaki. He's a guy who's produced some very good matches over his career but otherwise hasn't exactly stood out much over his career as an exception career. Hell, your nemesis Tanahashi may have produced more classics in the last 2 years on his own. He just hasn't rattled many brains.

 

Snipping out most of your response for the other thread, but since this is non-Cena related I will just note that I have seen Tanahashi in exactly one match that I would call a classic, the match with Suzuki from last year where I honestly can't come up with a single thing he added to the match of note (other than addition by subtraction, i.e. not doing a lot of the worst things he tends to do). I am not high on Sasaki actually, I was just (and still am) confused some by the fact that people hate him so much. To me he was a perfectly decent wrestler, good on his best days, boring on his worst days, but not the sort of guy one would hate. And I agree with SLL's point about Sasaki/Kobashi being the lift off point of much of modern Japanese heavyweight wrestling, though I understand there is variation/nuance to be debated