Jun Akiyama

[Rah]

20 hours ago, Boss Rock said:

I would love more recs if you have them!

SUWAMA vs Jun Akiyama  (AJPW 10/23/2011)
This goes looooooong so you're gonna need some patience for it. It has all those little cliches of longer Japanese matches (chess match/strategic style wrestling) which might leave the meat feeling a little uninspired for some but I adored Akiyama's vicious streak in trying to crack SUWAMA's neck. 

 

Jun Akiyama vs Masakatsu Funaki (AJPW 6/28/2012)

Fantastically violent 4 minutes. I'm a huge Funaki apologist, so take this one with a bit of salt, but I had no issues seeing this as one of the most fun matches to come out of Japan that year.

 

Jun Akiyama, Yoshihiro Takayama & Mitsuo Momota vs Kensuke Sasaki, Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Super Tiger II (Rikodozan Memorial 12/16/13)

This isn't something you're watching to find a "good match" but it's an example of how, between all the mindlessness, Akiyama can be so, so great.

 

Jun Akiyama vs Takao Omori  (AJPW 6/15/2014)
Fantastic match. I checked my review for this, now, and I wrote "Akiyama must be the single best wrestler alive nobody here talks about." Akiyama has a few other "good ones" a little later in the year (e.g. vs Miyahara), but I thought this was his strongest showing. He's at his best when he picks a specific body part and just goes to town with it in fantastic ways - RIP Omoroi's arm. They have another killer a couple years earlier (02/03/2012).

 

From 2015, puro fell of a cliff for me so I just gave up on it all together. I'm sure there's something that stands out, but I've not seen it. 2010s AJPW house-style was already starting to grate me from as early as 2012ish, because, amongst other copy-paste jobs, it felt like the irish whip into the barricade was a checklist spot. I honestly feel their style actively hampers their ability to deliver legitimate epics yet Akiyama would always ensure he gets the most out of that environment. I wasn't much aware that he had broken away from them and ended up in DDT as a grizzled, grumpy vet. Sounds a lot like Kingston in Chikara - which is a fantastic foil. 

 

 

[Boss Rock]

Thanks!

[MrMoonlight]

I'm wandering through this amazing forum these last couple of days, having discovered you guys a couple fo years ago, reading almost only 1980's nwa/wwf reviews but man, this whole part with one thread for each wrestler where you debate about how great they are with so many views that I can appreciate even when I disagree is just amazing. So thank you all, really!

Now, from what I read so far, if it was about the GTWE as in the Greatest Thread Wrestler Ever, this may be it: Jun Akiyama.

I also felt like wrtitting my own stuff because some of you asked for a great Akiyama as a grumpy old veteran. There's one match I couldn't find on line (but I'm pretty sure I have it somewhere) but if you can get your hand on:

02-11 -Diamond Ring- Kobashi Kenta & Akiyama Jun vs Sasaki Kensuke & Kitamiya Mitsuhiro

All the Akiyama vs Kitamiya interactions are Tenryu in a pretty damn good day like. I'll see if I can upload it and share, I'd love to hear some reviews of you guys on it.

PS: it was nowhere to be found so I uploaded it, here's the link:

 

[EnviousStupid]

Not a favourite, but he's almost certainly the best wrestler of the 2000s in my eyes, and that's the decade I grew up watching wrestling in. Plenty of great stuff across singles, tags, multimans, main-events, undercards, sprints, 30+ minute epics and practically everything in between. He even participated in one of the best G1 Climax tournaments, concluding with an all-time finals match against Hiroyoshi Tenzan.

[Mr JMML]

He has been great for 30 years, from his 1990's AJPW run to his KO-D Openweight championship reign in 2020. 

Three matches that I recommend:

 

 

 

Akiyama is a top 30 wrestler of all time for me.

[TheBean]

Very interested to see where Akiyama will place. He's had a better/smarter later part of his career than the 4 pillars but I'm not sure that will count as much as it should. There's some good post NOAH recommendations in these 5 pages of posts. He was #27 in 2016.

[highflyflow]

Perhaps not the most conventional comparison between the 5, but is it fair to say that Akiyama is a better matworker than all the Pillars? I think he’s shown a great capacity for it throughout his career and especially in some of his DDT work despite it probably not being the first thing you think of when you think about his case.

[EnviousStupid]

8 minutes ago, highflyflow said:

Perhaps not the most conventional comparison between the 5, but is it fair to say that Akiyama is a better matworker than all the Pillars? I think he’s shown a great capacity for it throughout his career and especially in some of his DDT work despite it probably not being the first thing you think of when you think about his case.

Easily. To be fair though, matwork wasn't a prominent part of the Pillars' wrestling style through the 90s, and Akiyama hadn't suffered as much wear and tear compared to the core four. The amateur wrestling background shines more from him post-Exodus and, like you said, he still shows an aptness for grappling late in his career. 

[TheBean]

Am very interested to see if he can pull ahead of Taue this time around (#26 in 2016). I've been watching more Taue recently and am certainly high on him but, I think Akiyama's post NOAH work has got to push him ahead of Akira this time (in my mind at least). 

[highflyflow]

24 minutes ago, TheBean said:

Am very interested to see if he can pull ahead of Taue this time around (#26 in 2016). I've been watching more Taue recently and am certainly high on him but, I think Akiyama's post NOAH work has got to push him ahead of Akira this time (in my mind at least). 

I'd be surprised if he didn't, I've seen people refer to Akiyama as a legitimate GOAT contender in the decade since the last vote in a way that I've never really seen for Taue. They'll be very close on my list, but I'd give Akiyama the edge for his late career consistency (I mean, I think you could argue his title match with Higuchi was last year's MOTY, an impressive feat for a 55-year-old man).

[josephweirdness]

Akiyama will do very well on my ballot, possibly Top 20 or Top 15. I am likely ranking him over at least one of the Pillars. His longevity case has been boosted a lot by the DDT work and I think getting to flex some skills as a comedy wrestler also rounds out his versatility case. Great thing to have some of his recommended work in the last five years be those heavyweight battles with Higuchi or just fucking around with Yoshihiko. 

[Ma Stump Puller]

3 hours ago, highflyflow said:

Perhaps not the most conventional comparison between the 5, but is it fair to say that Akiyama is a better matworker than all the Pillars? I think he’s shown a great capacity for it throughout his career and especially in some of his DDT work despite it probably not being the first thing you think of when you think about his case.

Kobashi was actually a pretty good grappler when he was inclined (one of his VERY early matches had a bunch of submission-throwing by him) his Johnny Smith match from 2000 also comes to mind, naturally we have all of Kawada's attempts to grapple with his shoot-style flirtations, but yeah out of the five Akiyama was the most talented when it came to conventional matworking yeah. The Hase match alone kinda defines that point.