Riki Choshu

[Jmare007]

Random mannerism theory.

[Rah]

3 hours ago, elliott said:

Misawa must have worked a match with Satanico when he went to Mexico in the 80s and never forgot the trauma. 

I'm not sure if you know or not, but they did fight 3 times!



I would have put money on having seen one of them but I can only find Misawa's last two matches in Mexico

 

Quote

1984-07-13	Arena México	1 of 3: Cachorro Mendoza, Kamikaze Misawa, Tony Salazar b Coloso Colosetti, El Egipcio, Jerry Estrada
1984-07-20	Arena México	1 of 3: Cachorro Mendoza, Kamikaze Misawa, Samurai Shiro vs Coloso Colosetti, El Dandy, Fuerza Guerrera

 

[elliott]

I ranked Riki Choshu 27th in 2016 and I feel great about that. I imagine he drops a bit in 2026, but its not because of him falling in my eyes, but others rising. I love him in the 80s. The Fujinami feud is awesome. Every single match they have is great. I know people have some criticisms, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. He was the driving force behind Tenryu's light switch going on and him flipping from good to great. Riki helped push Jumbo out of 70s style NWA champ mode and bring him to modernity. And Choshu made Hashimoto possible.  As a tag team wrestler he's a game changing force and there's enough singles stuff against Fujinami, Hashimoto, Fujiwara, Tenryu to put him safely on my list. Sure he's disappointing in long singles matches, but he's awesome at everything else. 

[KB8]

I had Choshu at number 30 in 2016 and that feels about right. An absurdly charismatic wrestler who parleyed that charisma into being one of the best ever at performing bursts of energy that could blow the roof off a place. Even if the point about him being best in singles matches when being led was true, his presence was almost unmatched so at worst he'd be about the best possible supporting act in history. He was routinely amazing in tags, especially as the guy coming in to either fire back against the opposition in defiance, or inflict greater misery on a wounded opponent. Might've been even better in multi-man matches as he made pretty much every single piece of involvement feel special. His list of great matches is sort of ridiculous as well and I don't much care if he had a shitty broadway with Jumbo. 

 

RIKI CHOSHU YOU SHOULD WATCH:

v Tatsumi Fujinami (New Japan, 4/3/83)

v Tatsumi Fujinami (New Japan, 8/4/83)

w/Yoshiaki Yatsu, Animal Hamaguchi, Isamu Teranishi & Kuniaki Kobayashi v Antonio Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Nobuhiako Takada, Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kengo Kimura (New Japan, 4/19/84)

v Antonio Inoki (New Japan, 8/2/84)

v Genichiro Tenryu (JPW, 2/21/85)

w/Yoshiaki Yatsu v Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (All Japan, 1/28/86)

v Killer Khan (All Japan, 7/31/86)

v Yoshiaki Fujiwara (New Japan, 6/9/87)

w/Hiroshi Saito, Kuniaki Kobayashi, Super Strong Machine & Masa Saito v Tatsumi Fujinami, Keiichi Yamada, Shiro Koshinaka, Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Kengo Kimura (New Japan, 9/12/88)

v Big Van Vader (New Japan, 6/27/89)

w/Shiro Koshinaka, Kensuke Sasaki, Kantaro Hoshino & Kuniaki Kobayashi v Animal Hamaguchi, Masanobu Kurisu, Hiro Saito, Tatsuhito Goto & Super Strong Machine (New Japan, 6/26/90)

v Shinya Hashimoto (New Japan, 8/10/91)

w/Shinya Hashimoto v Genichiro Tenryu & Takashi Ishikawa (WAR, 4/2/93)

v Shinya Hashimoto (New Japan, 6/15/94)

v Shinya Hashimoto (New Japan, 8/2/96)

[El-P]

"Less is more" doesn't actually mean anything. I have used it myself in the past, many times, in many contexts, but the reality is that it's a vapid cliché. It doesn't say anything about anything, ignores everything about the social fields it's being used in and pretty much is a cute line to use to make yourself seem smarter than the rest of the crowd who likes "more". Less can be more, but less can also, very often, be less. And more can be more. Much more even.

That being said, Riki Choshu is the transcendental "less is more" pro-wrestler if there ever was one. Not that his "less" is "few". But his "less" is very efficient, not just because of who he is (which is a major issue with other candidates whose names I won't drop here, nor in my list) but because of how he does it. Execution matters. A lot. And Choshu's execution is what makes it always fun, no matter what, to watch him backdrop and lariat a motherfucker into oblivion. I don't think I can ever get bored of it, even if he's only doing this. 

This only really refers to Choshu's 90's, before his retirement (kewk), which really adds quite a bit to his resume (as opposed to his compadre Fujinami, whose 90's added a little bit here and there but really not that much). He clearly made his case in his 80's prime, but his 90's were really a continuation of him being an elite pro-wrestler in all its "less is more" glory. Damn I used it again. But it's through though. But watch Choshu, even in the second half of the 90's. Whatever he was doing, he was doing is a very much "more" way. Apart from the ridiculous squashes of UWF-I guys (that was petty Choshu, I know you hate shoot-style but come on) and the pretty bad Tenryu Tokyo Dome main event in 93 (which was a lot more Tenryu's wrongdoing, really), Choshu was ON whenever he needed to be, be it the legend taming the Musketeers, the NJPW star defending his company against outsiders or the older guy having a last run on top trying to contain the wave that was threatening to submerge him (G1 96 final, people). And when he just had to lariat a mofo, he just did that and it was always enough to get a smile out of me, because of the way he would do it. The intense maneurisms, the short term selling details, the oddball cool spot out of nowhere when the occasion was right and of course, the big-ass power spots (some of the greatest looking suplexes you can find anywhere anytime). 

So yeah, I did not revisit his prime (done it last time around and can re-contextualize it pretty easily with my 2022 mindset), but Choshu very obviously makes my list, most probably in the top 50 (you never know how things might move around in a few years though, in a way or another), and that's from two decades of being one of my favorite pro-wrestlers ever, one I never ever get bored to see on a screen. (still gonna watch more from past 00's, just for the hell of it)

[EnviousStupid]

The only thing that I think keeps him from being a high-end candidate to me is that Choshu never really worked well in long singles matches. Maybe some feel differently about that '84 Inoki match, but the guy is tailor-made for short, compact outings and for my taste, never was able to adapt to something longer. I don't know if there's a singles match of his that goes over 20 minutes that I would recommend as great. That probably doesn't matter to some here, but when I look at Fujinami, Jumbo, Inoki, Tenryu, Fujiwara, Hashimoto, any of the Pillars, etc. I can see plenty of longer matches that're held up as not just their best work, but among the greatest matches ever. Compared to them, it's just something he seriously lacks.