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Shinjiro Ohtani

Grimmas

By Grimmas
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Ditch Newbie

Ditch

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Ohtani as a heavyweight doesn't knock him out of being solid top 100 material, but I think it does mean that the 27th place he got in the SC vote was high. He's had loads of opportunities to produce MOTYCs over the last 13 years and only has a couple. The Nakamura match is very good; it's also the only really strong singles match he's had as a heavy. There are some 'fun' matches but not much that would register in a GOAT discussion.

 

Almost certainly on my ballot thanks to the juniors work, but not excessively high.

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Childs Explorer

Childs

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Ohtani's a tough one, because even his run as an elite jr. heavy was pretty short for a GOAT conversation. His SC placement looks even nuttier now. But God he was good at his best. I'd say his rivalry with Liger produced the best cruiser series in history, and that was just as much Ohtani as Liger. I'll probably end up listing him.

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ohtani's jacket Mentor

ohtani's jacket

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I don't think his SC placement was nutty. It was a reflection of how highly rated his juniors work was at the time. I'm sure in 2026 some of the choices people make this time will seem nutty, but I would urge people to look at the original poll as a snapshot of the smark mentality at the time and not "Oh, they got this wrong" or "How could they have thought that?"

 

Having said that, Ohtani is a guy I wouldn't vote as high this time if only because I've discovered a bunch of new workers since then. If a couple of those '98 Liger matches were released in full, I could see there being a re-interest in him. I've always resisted his heavyweight stuff, which isn't very fair, but I doubt one or two matches will sway me unless they're particularly good.

 

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Loss Proficient

Loss

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Other Otani worth seeing and talking about that hasn't already been mentioned.

 

Shinjiro Otani & Wild Pegasus vs Great Sasuke & Black Tiger (10/09/94)

Shinjiro Otani & Wild Pegasus vs Great Sasuke & Black Tiger (10/18/94)

Shinjiro Otani vs Koji Kanemoto (04/16/95)

Shinjiro Otani vs Ultimo Dragon (12/13/95)

Shinjiro Otani vs Wild Pegasus (03/20/96)

Shinjiro Otani vs Black Tiger (06/05/96)

Shinjiro Otani vs Kazushi Sakuraba (06/17/96)

Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto vs Jushin Liger & Dr. Wagner Jr. (03/06/99)

Shinjiro Otani vs El Samurai (06/03/99)

 

I tried to avoid other high end tag matches and six-mans where he was involved, because I don't really remember his specific contributions, but those likely favor him too.

 

I'm going to stumble over how to reconcile a really disappointing heavyweight run with an absolutely tremendous junior run. A long career like the junior run would make him a top 25 candidate but the heavy stuff alone would put him nowhere in contention. So who knows.

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El-P Veteran

El-P

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Another feather in his cap is how well he worked against the UWF-I guys. He was easily the best at it. Granted, it was during his peak years, and he looked like the best worker ever during that short time. Still, it was a stylistic shift and he made it work without trying to ape the whole shoot style.

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GOTNW Explorer

GOTNW

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Well this is my most ambitious post so hopefully I don't botch everything. It's been thrown around a lot that Ohtani's post-New Japan work has been disappointing and mediocre, and some have even went so far that they've called it actively bad. That is something that I vehemently disagree with. I wanted to do a Matt-D esque write up of all of his strenghts and why he connects with me so much as a worker but that will have to wait as I also wanted to recommend the best post-NewJa Ohtani and realised what would be the way do to so that would be consistent with my argument. I could've just pointed to ten matches and said "this is the best of Ohtani in this time fram. watch it". And they would've all been really, really good matches, some even great, some excellent. But that would completely miss the point of who Ohtani was as a worker in that time period. And, let's face it-it is also a very long run-twice as long as his much more pimped junior run. Pointing to such a small smapling could also alienate people because they could think "well, if this is the best he could do in such a long time frame then it must've not been special at all". To me the case of post-NewJa Ohtani lies in great performances in versatility and not long singles matches. Proving Ohtani's greatness by creating a huge list would've been a pain in the ass if I didn't love him as much as I do. If anything my efforts to create such a list infuriated me because so much ZERO-1 had disappeared into the ether. But I wasn't going to spend six months on it in an effort to include everything.

 

Behold, my mega list of recommended post-NewJa Ohtani matches:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

I bolded the best stuff(well I tried anyway. there's a lot of stuff in here). I didn't include anything I didn't enjoy. Some matches are there more for Ohtani's performance than anything (2-3 tops, the Wrestle Kingdom 7(2013) tag would be the best example of this). The (last on the list) Minoru Tanaka match is above average but I wouldn't have included if I didn't love the storyline surrounding it. Anyway. Ohtani vs rookies and undercard wrestlers rules. Ohtani as an invader rules. Ohtani defending his home turf rules. Ohtani in big brawls rules. Ohtani in faux deathmatches rules. Ohtani in inexplicably great fatal four aways I had no idea existed rules. You get the running theme. Tomorrow I will edit this post and add a part where I'll pair matches with mentioned match types and add some not aforementioned as well. Good night.

 

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Edwin Rookie

Edwin

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  On 9/24/2014 at 9:26 PM, Loss said:

Shinjiro Otani vs Kazushi Sakuraba (06/17/96)

This was a pretty awesome beatdown from Ohtani from what I recall. He hits Sakuraba with some pretty brutal springboard moves.

 

  On 9/14/2014 at 10:37 PM, Timbo Slice said:

I'd actually hear arguments that the Sammy match (1/21/96)

This is my favorite Jr. match of all time. Ohtani's arm selling is among my favorite moments ever.

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Jimmy Redman Contributor

Jimmy Redman

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Ohtani is easily my favourite juniors worker aside from Liger. That's not as high praise as it sounds because the juniors style isn't really my thing, but the best stuff outstrips my dislike of the style and Ohtani's best stuff is just ridiculously good. He's the guy that I most look forward to seeing in an 8-minute Super Juniors tourney match.

 

His springboard dropkick is a thing of beauty. I like how he always makes his stuff look impactful, even when he's doing flips and shit. He launches his body into things really violently.

 

He's a guy that I've watched enough of for the purposes of this project, but I'm still keen to watch so much more. Sometimes I get fatigued from binge watching a particular guy for too long, but Ohtani still intrigues me.

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GOTNW Explorer

GOTNW

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When done in tags his Springboard Dropkick is probably my favourite transition ever, the way he'll just come flying into frame is unreal and so fundamentally brilliant it comes across as unexpected the 15th time you see it as it did the first time. He even made it work the one time I saw him botch it by bullying the ref after the match and claiming the ropes were too loose.

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Childs Explorer

Childs

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GOTNW inspired me to do a little run through my stack of Zero-One shows (which was a gloriously weird promotion for a few years while Hash was still alive) and I basically have to agree with him that heavyweight Ohtani was pretty damn good. He still had cool offense, still projected a ton of personality into his matches and adjusted well to a wide variety of opponents. He's hurt by the fact Z-1 was an underwatched promotion and by the fact his good matches weren't epics like his classics against Liger and Sammy. But he sure didn't fall off a cliff.

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Clayton Jones Explorer

Clayton Jones

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I couldn't agree more with GOTNW and have been saying as much about heavyweight Otani for a long time. While the '95-97 run is what cements him in my top 25 for certain, his consistently fun work as a heavyweight doesn't hinder him at all either. The three matches opposite Murakami are ones I can go back to over and over again.

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GOTNW Explorer

GOTNW

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More songs about Ohtani:

We've seen a lot of discussion about peak vs. longevity, consistency, input vs. output etc. over the course of the last year and a half and all the GWE discussion that came along with the project. What I find fascinating about Ohtani is that offers everything yet changes drastically as a worker. He *gets it* almost instantly and his highly touted junior matches are what people first bring up with him. And, as great as they are, what I find equally as impressive with him is how he would work 4 minute Super J Cup matches and matches vs UWFi workers. The way he build matches vs. Mochizuki and Super Delfin blew me away, they had the same feel of epics that lasted five times longer and an unparalleled sense of urgency. I think I've watched his match vs. Kenichi Yamamoto like three times and I almost never rewatch matches. I also enjoyed the few matches he had in WCW for whatever that's worth. I might just like his heavyweight run even more. I don't know whether many would agree with I would put the Murakami matches up there with anything he's ever done, and even if he is lacking in "great matches" I don't see it as an issue whatsoever. I'm not Matt D in that how many roles a wrestler can work in and such is what I first think about when judging someone but Ohtani is so great at it it's undeniable. That he could get great matches out of Sekimoto while having clear goals to accomplish in them with establishing Sekimoto is much more impressive to me than having great matches where the end goal is just to have a great match. I'm an absolute sucker for his acting and goofy facial expressions. By all acounts they shouldn't work. But they do. His ability to connect with the crowd and form an almost intimate relationship with the viewer is a big reason why he can have something like the match vs. Minoru Tanaka from last December and also why ZERO-1 still exists honestly. His act is a perfect fit for smaller arenas but can translate well to bigger arenas as well whenever he shows up in NOAH/All Japan/New Japan etc. He'll do stuff like start an Ohtani chant himself, and if it was someone else it could come off almost laughable and definitely as trying too hard-but it works with him. He has fun shtick like the Facewash, can work in any environment and adapt on the spot. It's fitting his catchphrase is "believe"-both because his entrances will sometimes have cool touches like him closing his eyes for a bit when his theme song starts playing or praying before a match-and because there is very tangible belief fans have in him that has allowed him to the work he has in the last 15 years. For my money he has almost 25 years of great work.

 

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Jetlag Collaborator

Jetlag

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It's kinda weird that Ohtani actually made the top 100. I think his 2000s stuff gets barely pimped. Like there are what, 5matches from that 16 year period that get praised (ignoring the outstanding GOTNW post on page 1)? For me Ohtani is a mixed bag. I actually like those matches vs. Mochizuki, Tajiri, Delfin, Sasuke, the rookie squashes etc. better than the stuff with Liger and Ultimo. He made my list but not terribly high.

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elliott Enthusiast

elliott

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I ranked Shinjiro Ohtani 75th in 2016 and I'm ok with that. I think his best stuff holds up really well. He was really good right away and at his best is awesome. Great charisma, could sell, and one of the best offensive wrestlers ever. Other than Liger he was probably the best of the 90s juniors. Cool dad and cool jacket. :) 

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