Dick Togo

[Boss Rock]

A master of versatility who can adapt to almost any situation. You can look up any random indie Dick Togo match on Youtbe and find something that's at least pretty fun. Take this match for example. No ropes, just a mat against a guy who's only been wrestling for 5 months.

And his peak stuff is pretty terrific. Obviously the Michinoku Pro tags with Kaientai DX and against Honda, but he has loads of awesome DDT matches against Ibushi, HARASHIMA, Gedo, and even Sanshiro Takagi. Tons of really good U.S. and Japan indie matches as well. A very strong top 30 contender.

[Childs]

He would be a great one for the random match generator. It's abhorrent that he's rotting as a spare part in Gedo's current booking hell.

[Boss Rock]

I'm begging them to put him in BOSJ, just to show how good he still can be.

[Jmare007]

He's probably gonna be higher on my list than last time. The more I see of him the more I like him, and he's still so fucking good in the ring.

[Righteous River]

Don't really have much else to add here other than he was still having amazing matches as recently as early 2020. While heading to NJPW and for some reason not getting any actual matches has seemingly completely halted the run he was having last year, his career is still so strong and he looks good everytime I see him. As things stand, he is possibly a top 10 guy for me.

[KB8]

I had Togo at 43 in 2016 and I'm happy enough with that. I don't think I've seen any Togo since the last deadline though, so there's bound to be stuff since then (and stuff from before that I missed) to watch. Obviously an amazing portly flier and almost certainly the best lucharesu-type (or whatever you want to call it) wrestler ever, but the first retirement run showed him in a completely different light and he was every bit as good. Tags, multi-mans, singles, he has stone cold classics in all of them. 

 

DICK TOGO YOU SHOULD WATCH:

w/Great Sasuke & Shiryu v Super Delfin, Gran Naniwa & Jinsei Shinzaki (M-Pro, 2/4/94)

v Jushin Liger (New Japan, 6/17/96)

w/Taka Michinoku, Mens Teioh, Shoichi Funaki & Shiryu v Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, Super Delfin, Gran Naniwa & Masato Yakushiji (M-Pro, 12/16/96)

w/Taka Michinoku, Mens Teoh, Masayoshi Motegi & Shoichi Funaki v Great Sasuke, Super Delphin, Gran Naniwa, Gran Hamada & Masato Yakushiji (M-Pro, 3/16/97)

v Antonio Honda (DDT, 1/30/11)

[elliott]

On 9/23/2014 at 8:51 AM, Matt D said:

Yep, another guy to basically start from scratch with. Can we do this in 2022?

You ready? You got 6 months to make your case

In all seriousness, I didn't vote for Togo in 2016 and thats one of my fucking blew it picks. I said at the time that I hadn't watched enough of his 2000s singles work to get a clear picture and I really still feel that way. I've seen a bit more between now and then though and Togo is consistently awesome in every setting.  From the outside looking in, I feel like there's a chance he's a top 25 candidate and possibly in that Daniel Bryan, Satomura, Akiyama best of the last 20 years conversation. I wanna get a clearer picture. Togo got his start in 1991 and his retirement was only 13-15. 

Togo really needs a return of Goodhelmet mega comp

[Reel]

I know that everyone hates his current New Japan run, but it seems to be mostly how he is booked and what his arrival has meant to how the promotion looks. That's my read on it anyway. I don't really follow the discourse and I've only watched the tournament matches this year.

Is he actually bad now? Is there anything I should check out? Is what he's doing now actively hurting his case?

[Ma Stump Puller]

1 hour ago, Reel said:

I know that everyone hates his current New Japan run, but it seems to be mostly how he is booked and what his arrival has meant to how the promotion looks. That's my read on it anyway. I don't really follow the discourse and I've only watched the tournament matches this year.

Is he actually bad now? Is there anything I should check out? Is what he's doing now actively hurting his case?

I think people just generally don't like the style that HoT brings as they feel it reduces the quality of everyone involved and turns matches into bundles of heel stalling and cheap heat. I tend to disagree with that a fair bit (especially considering HoT is not a new concept at all for heel teams given the likes of Voodoo Murders and whatnot, it's a lot more traditional as a dynamic than people expect) but that's essentially the jest of the argument. 

That said, the style has tangibly brought out some quality matches and feuds: the battle over the NEVER 6-man title between Togo vs the rag-tag team of Ishii/Goto/Hashi produced some surprisingly good matches and got a lot out of what have been mostly middling belt runs. Togo doesn't play a massive role in-ring outside of some (fairly good) 6-man matches between the trios but it's still quite decent. There's also a fairly enjoyable JTO tag between him and Gedo vs TAKA and Kanemaru that's just them trying to heel each other out the whole time lol. I think the NOAH/NJPW match he had recently against Go and Masa was solid if only for him stooging like anything for the duo. Other than that, it's mostly filler tag work. 

It's not gonna make someone who wasn't a fan into one, but bad most definitely not.