Volk Han

[Jimmy Redman]

It's a testament to Han that he's someone I got into almost immediately even though I have basically no time for shoot style. He opened the door for me to enjoy a style that I previously couldn't even sit through, and he gets a hell of a lot of credit for that from me.

 

Like Breaks he's a guy with almost immediate, universal appeal. Anyone who starts watching him can't help but be impressed, even if they previously had no concept of the style or context, or (like me) don't like the style. I think there's an argument that some guys get bumped up ahead of their contemporaries for essentially being gateway drugs (Aja Kong in particular, also Breaks), but I choose to see that as being a significant positive. It's not an easy thing to work a style, perhaps a niche or unfashionable one, and make it entertaining and universal enough that even people who are novices to, or actively dislike, that style can enjoy it...I feel like that's a real accomplishment as a worker. It's not a traditional one because wrestlers work in the moment and aren't thinking about randoms on the internet 20 years later when they wrestle, but at the same time, creating something that is timeless, something that transcends the time and place they are in, is special. And kind of necessary for the purposes of this list and the kind of things we do.

[RyanClingman]

It's a testament to Han that he's someone I got into almost immediately even though I have basically no time for shoot style. He opened the door for me to enjoy a style that I previously couldn't even sit through, and he gets a hell of a lot of credit for that from me.

 

Like Breaks he's a guy with almost immediate, universal appeal. Anyone who starts watching him can't help but be impressed, even if they previously had no concept of the style or context, or (like me) don't like the style. I think there's an argument that some guys get bumped up ahead of their contemporaries for essentially being gateway drugs (Aja Kong in particular, also Breaks), but I choose to see that as being a significant positive. It's not an easy thing to work a style, perhaps a niche or unfashionable one, and make it entertaining and universal enough that even people who are novices to, or actively dislike, that style can enjoy it...I feel like that's a real accomplishment as a worker. It's not a traditional one because wrestlers work in the moment and aren't thinking about randoms on the internet 20 years later when they wrestle, but at the same time, creating something that is timeless, something that transcends the time and place they are in, is special. And kind of necessary for the purposes of this list and the kind of things we do.

 

I agree with this. Han strikes me as shoot-style's answer to a Mysterio or Misawa, in that regardless of one's style preference, it is very difficult not to be impressed by his body of work and elite level performance.

 

On a slightly unrelated note, I have almost finished making my way through his entire match catalogue, and have ranked his matches from best to worst. I will post that ranking within the next few weeks. I have also seen all of his shoot fights, which are amazingly boring, but are important in demonstrating the fact that RINGS matches weren't just shoot fights with worked finishes, as many others have already mentioned in this thread.

[GOTNW]

One thing I absolutely love about Han is the way he'll throw people around. He won't throw a bunch of suplexes or anything like that but he has these awesome wrist control takedowns that really do give the impression he is in complete control of the match. He'll get Armbared or Choked and then just lift the other guy up and Rampage Jackson him down. He absolutely has his spots but they are like Santo's dives in that you just can't get bored of them due to how beautiful they look and he has so many ways to work them into matches. One of my favourite things I saw him do was react to Mitsuya Nagai leglocking him by dragging him to the middle of the ring. Didn't even think to try to immediately counter it, let alone go for the rope break, he dragged him to the middle of the ring so he could be better positioned once he reversed it and locked in a submission of his own. I'm not sure there's anyone better in selling going down. He'll get hit with blows/kicks and fall so beautifully and convincingly it will change the flow of the match in an instant.

[shodate]

He should be top 20 easy in my personal list he number 4 of a time i watched an enjoyed all his matches iv seen

[cactus]

Volk Han's fantastic, no doubt. I wouldn't call him the best wrestler of all time as he didn't have that many matches and he never ventured outside of shoot style. I want my GOATs to be versatile.

[shodate]

Volk Han's fantastic, no doubt. I wouldn't call him the best wrestler of all time as he didn't have that many matches and he never ventured outside of shoot style. I want my GOATs to be versatile.

how many workers can you have seen 100% of there matches ad they have never had a match under **** and realism trumps versatility 100% of the time to many people who finshed above him show ot mean strings in there work epaclly in there mart work and or strikes

[cactus]

 

Volk Han's fantastic, no doubt. I wouldn't call him the best wrestler of all time as he didn't have that many matches and he never ventured outside of shoot style. I want my GOATs to be versatile.

how many workers can you have seen 100% of there matches ad they have never had a match under **** and realism trumps versatility 100% of the time to many people who finshed above him show ot mean strings in there work epaclly in there mart work and or strikes

 

 

I couldn't say that for anyone even Volk Han. He's never had a bad match, but I could probably make that case for Bret Hart and he certainly isn't the greatest in my book either.

 

I disagree on the realism trumps versatility point. Volk Han does shoot style brilliantly, but I would rather watch a Kobashi/Funk/Danielson match over his 9/10 because I can expect something different in most matches.

[DR Ackermann]

Of course it's subjective and somewhat besides the point but its pretty wild to say that Bret Hart of all people never had a bad match. I think Bret Hart is probably the most overrated guy ever, but even so he has his fair share of nondescript, nothing-happening matches as well as bad ones. I think even his supporters could point to examples of matches where he didn't care cause it wasn't important in his eyes so he didn't try.

[shodate]

 

 

Volk Han's fantastic, no doubt. I wouldn't call him the best wrestler of all time as he didn't have that many matches and he never ventured outside of shoot style. I want my GOATs to be versatile.

how many workers can you have seen 100% of there matches ad they have never had a match under **** and realism trumps versatility 100% of the time to many people who finshed above him show ot mean strings in there work epaclly in there mart work and or strikes

 

 

I couldn't say that for anyone even Volk Han. He's never had a bad match, but I could probably make that case for Bret Hart and he certainly isn't the greatest in my book either.

 

I disagree on the realism trumps versatility point. Volk Han does shoot style brilliantly, but I would rather watch a Kobashi/Funk/Danielson match over his 9/10 because I can expect something different in most matches.

 

nope realism helo buy into the work what does verrslity do

[cactus]

Of course it's subjective and somewhat besides the point but its pretty wild to say that Bret Hart of all people never had a bad match. I think Bret Hart is probably the most overrated guy ever, but even so he has his fair share of nondescript, nothing-happening matches as well as bad ones. I think even his supporters could point to examples of matches where he didn't care cause it wasn't important in his eyes so he didn't try.

 

Bret Hart was the first guy that came to mind. I've never seen him in a bad match. He doesn't have as many great matches as guy like Kobashi or Han, but he could carry a broom to solid, serviceable match and I think that's why he's seen as great.

 

 

 

 

Volk Han's fantastic, no doubt. I wouldn't call him the best wrestler of all time as he didn't have that many matches and he never ventured outside of shoot style. I want my GOATs to be versatile.

how many workers can you have seen 100% of there matches ad they have never had a match under **** and realism trumps versatility 100% of the time to many people who finshed above him show ot mean strings in there work epaclly in there mart work and or strikes

 

 

I couldn't say that for anyone even Volk Han. He's never had a bad match, but I could probably make that case for Bret Hart and he certainly isn't the greatest in my book either.

 

I disagree on the realism trumps versatility point. Volk Han does shoot style brilliantly, but I would rather watch a Kobashi/Funk/Danielson match over his 9/10 because I can expect something different in most matches.

 

nope realism helo buy into the work what does verrslity do

 

 

I prefer a mix of both. I need to believe in what they're selling obviously. I need more than that to call someone the greatest of all time though.

[elliott]

I rated Volk Han 37th in 2016 and I completely fucking blew it. I punished Volk in 2016 for both being a favorite and having too few matches in his career. For some reason I ignored the fact that Volk is one of the 10 best wrestlers ever. He'll be in the top 10. Great from the first match till the last. 

[Marksman]

I've only seen a couple of Volk Han matches but they were both absolutely sensational (and they weren't 2 of the ones I've seen hyped as his best, or anything.) Just a staggering talent. Will likely be incredibly high for me once I've seen more of his matches, despite his relatively low number of matches in his career. 

[ohtani's jacket]

6 hours ago, elliott said:

I rated Volk Han 37th in 2016 and I completely fucking blew it. I punished Volk in 2016 for both being a favorite and having too few matches in his career. For some reason I ignored the fact that Volk is one of the 10 best wrestlers ever. He'll be in the top 10. Great from the first match till the last. 

[KB8]

Han was my number 21 in 2016 and I'm okay with that. He might even climb a few spots into the top 20 next time, but I can't see him dropping any at the least. I can see why his number of career matches being so low (relatively speaking for pro-wrestling, anyway) might limit how high some people can put him, but it's not as if he only has a handful of them. Plus, we have footage of literally every single one that he did have, so from that perspective we can judge him pretty much completely in a way we can't for the vast majority of wrestlers, and I feel pretty good about saying I've never seen an actively poor Volk Han performance. Not one, not his very first, not his very last, not one in between (though I haven't seen ALL of them yet so I guess I'll hold off on committing to that statement?). A god of matwork but also a game and sort of underappreciated striker, especially when he went to his favourite spinning backfist, and nobody could sell a gut shot like Han either. He was also an amazing carny at heart because he'd whip out all of these ludicrous hapkido throws through joint-manipulation and pressure points and somehow made all of them look plausible. Han was one of a kind. 

 

VOLK HAN YOU SHOULD WATCH:

v Akira Maeda (RINGS, 12/7/91)

v Gennadi Gigant (RINGS, 3/5/92)

v Akira Maeda (RINGS, 4/3/92)

v Andrei Kopylov (RINGS, 7/16/92)

v Dick Vrij (RINGS, 8/21/92)

v Mitsuya Nagain (RINGS, 4/24/93)

v Dick Vrij (RINGS, 7/13/93)

v Nikolai Zouev  (RINGS, 11/18/93)

v Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS, 12/14/94)

v Masayuki Naruse (RINGS, 4/28/95)

v Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS, 6/17/95)

v Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS, 8/24/96)

v Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS, 9/25/96)

v Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS, 1/22/97)

v Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS, 9/26/97)

[elliott]

1 hour ago, KB8 said:

VOLK HAN YOU SHOULD WATCH:

 

All of them. Everyone should just watch all of them. Its only like 55-60 matches and they're all cool. 

[KB8]

I legitimately think every single Volk Han match I've ever seen - and I've seen nearly all of them - are worth watching for at least SOMETHING he does, so I agree with that. 

[mjp7798]

There's a group of wrestlers who in every match, have one moment where i audibly say "fuck that's awesome".  Volk Han may be the one where I find myself saying that the most

[Microstatistics]

Top 10 contender. Other-worldly mat-worker who was pretty much world-class from day one. His ability to conjure gorgeous, limb-maiming submissions out of thin air was truly special but he was also a great striker and seller. He was THE star of 1992-1996 RINGS, gelling well with everyone, from the native talent to the other Russians. 

He didn't reach the heights of Tamura or Fujiwara, which is why I won't rank him as high as the other two. But on a per match basis, he is hard to beat. 

[club]

Volk will rank pretty highly for me I suspect. It’s a given that he’s technically very impressive, and he’s also a very underrated seller. From his facials and body language you always know how the match is going for him, even when it’s unclear from the actual action.

 

He’s a wrestler who has a great understanding of why his stuff works with the crowd, and is a master of how to integrate it with basically anyone. The upshot is that matches aren’t always good, but his performances are. While stylistically they’re far apart, in this way he puts me in mind of someone like Jim Breaks or Jushin Liger.

[Control21]

Volk Han is currently #2 on my list, just behind Bret Hart for me. I consider both of those guys two of the greatest natural performers to ever grace the ring.