Jun Akiyama

[Jingus]

What top matches of his from 2015 are available on Youtube? Which ones would y'all recommend?

[Tim Cooke]

Honestly think his match vs Kobashi for the Triple Crown in 1998 is the best All Japan match from the 90s and possibly ever.

That's an interesting take

[BillThompson]

What top matches of his from 2015 are available on Youtube? Which ones would y'all recommend?

 

That's a tough one as both DM and YT take down AJPW stuff pretty early these days. But, if you can find the 8-29 tag match with Omori versus Go & Miyahara or the recent Akebono match, those are definitely go to matches from this year.

[GOTNW]

The Akebono match was fun but it wasn't even as good as the match he had vs. Yuji Hino earlier that night.

 

I'd strongly recommend his match from the Champion Carnival Finals vs Miyahara, not a MOTYC or anything but a very good match that plays off their match from last year.

[jdw]

 

Honestly think his match vs Kobashi for the Triple Crown in 1998 is the best All Japan match from the 90s and possibly ever.

That's an interesting take

 

 

This was 40 minutes of my life by going over to Youtube to see if I'd forgotten about this one. I now recall why I specifically wrote that "one last time" comment in the DVDVR 90s Poll. The one thing I'd take back from it is that 6/98 isn't really all that great either.

[GOTNW]

It must suck to be so jaded with wrestling.

[jdw]

I love wrestling. Last time I spent a decent amount of time watching wrestling in a day, I saw some matches that I enjoyed the hell out of... some stuff I thought was "eh"... and got some laughs in at Flair:

 

http://otherarena.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2202

 

Last time I wrote about a match was a couple of days ago here, where I talked about a match that I liked that someone else didn't.

 

http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/31793-jvk-reviews-pimped-matches-from-late-90s-10s/?p=5708431

 

* * * * *

 

As far as this, it lost me right around here:

 

JA: Dropkick to knee
JA: Dragon Screw
JA: five stomps to the knee while Kobashi Hulk's Up
JA: Running kick to knee
KK: Chop
JA: Stomp
KK: Urakana (blocked)
JA: Exploder
KK: No Sells
KK: Half Nelson Suplex
JA: Zombie sells
JA: Dropkick to knee

 

Oh... they're dead now as Jun rolls to the floor and Kenta rolls towards the apron.

 

Oh... they're not dead yet as Jun comes over and theydosey doe around until...

 

KK: Half Nelson Suplez on the floor

 

Kenta rolls him back in the ring for a count, which Jun kicks out close to three because he's freaking dead 11+ minutes into this.

 

KK: DDT + cover
KK: Full Nelson Suplex + cover

 

Kobashi suddenly again remembers that his knee hurts. He still decides to set for a move where he'll need his knee: a power bomb. No, wait... it hurts too much and he drops Jun and wanders around a bit. No... wait... it's okay now..

 

KK: Choppy choppy chop
KK: plants the fuck out of Jun with a power bomb + sells the hell out of the knee...

 

Jun takes the opportunity to roll onto the arpon, which everyone who has been following along for a while knows is to set up a spot off the arpron to the floor.

 

Kobashi sets Jun for a Half Nelson Suplex off the apron, which makes perfect sense if you're selling your knee like Kobashi has been. Hell, any move off the apron makes perfect sense, as does the 50/50 chance that it will get counters, as is always the case since All Japan went to needing to have these in damn near every big match that it's become a meme by this point.

 

Jun counters the half nelson suplex attempt with a weak back elbow, then wins the "struggle" with Kobashi by eatting some chops while giving Kobashi's knee some love taps, puts on the hold for the Dragon Screw surprisingly easy, which Kobashi makes no attempt to stop or block and really only tries to position himself so that he eats it in a really nice visual fashion.

 

Dude in the first row really likes it. But then again, Dudes in front rows like Sabu going through tables.

 

Jun is surprisingly okay for a guy who ate a pair of Half Nelson Suplexes (one to the floor), a Full Nelson Suplex and just got power bombed the fuck out of. 7/94 Doc after the backdrop driver this ain't.

 

Jun proceeds to attack the knee in a variety of ways for close to seven minutes, which would be compelling if (i) we hadn't just seen Kenta blow off the prior knee shit by Hulking Up, (ii) Jun had any knee related finishers, and (iii) damn if Kobashi doesn't just pop up to cut off all of this knee work as well.

 

Oh well...

 

It's kind of funny that folks coined the term self-conscious epic more recently, especially for later day WWE Main Event Style. It would have been a good term for back here. I did see Pete use it for a Misawa-Kawada the year before, but this one really has the vibe even more.

[ohtani's jacket]

How come you didn't elaborate on why MS-1/Chicana was disappointing?

[jdw]

Because I thought it far more interesting to point out James feeling that the one match he wanted to watch more than anything else that day was flat as all hell. It was without any prompting from me, as I didn't crap on the match the whole time. I also found it was funny that he felt strongly enough about the match that he used it as a response to Mrs. Hoback on what we were up to while she worked.

 

I didn't write in depth about any of the matches. I was quick hitting what we thought were awesome (like the G1 1991 stuff), highlighting a nifty little throw away thing like Murdoch vs Hata that we enjoyed, taking a few shots at Flair looking out of place and goofy on his first trip to All Japan, having fun with a 17 year old futbol match that James repeatedly lost his mind over, and trying to get across how much incredible fun I had watching Godzilla with Caleb as he's always sharing cool stuff with me (like his play this weekend) and this was a chance to share with him something I dug and getting to see him react to it, ask questions, think about it, and pop was flat out one of the great joys that I've had this year (similar to experiencing his father reacting to the United-Pool match).

 

So walking through what I thought about that Lucha match wasn't really the point.

[dawho5]

I always felt like Akiyama had to go along with Kobashi's bad tendencies because he was the junior wrestler in the match. I have a hard time blaming him for Kobashi using the half nelson suplex as a transition spot (which he constantly did even against guys who were the underdog against him) and blowing off the leg selling. It's one of the reasons I think people other than Kawada or Taue working on Kobashi's leg, because they could reel him in, was a mistake. It's kind of a corollary to my thought that juniors should lay off the legwork to set up big submissions until really late because it's almost impossible to sell the leg in most juniors matches. Same for working Kobashi as an "underneath" guy. Leave the leg be and find something that won't throw a wrench into the way Kobashi likes to work.

[ohtani's jacket]

So walking through what I thought about that Lucha match wasn't really the point.

 

Sure. You just never hear a bad word about that match so I was curious.

[jdw]

 

So walking through what I thought about that Lucha match wasn't really the point.

 

Sure. You just never hear a bad word about that match so I was curious.

 

 

Nobody had a bad word for the Steamer-Flair Wrestle War match for ages. It was accepted as an all-time classic, and in some circles as *the* all-time classic.

 

Until they did have a bad word for it.

 

It's possible that someone was critical of Wrestle War before Jewett, but he was the first I can recall knocking it down a peg. I don't think he called it a shitty match, but he didn't think it was an all-time classic, and give it one of hit working overs. And I think was met with resistance.

 

I'm sure you've run into that with movies: universal love/praise for something, yet someone (possibly even you) wonders, "WTF?"

[fxnj]

I always felt like Akiyama had to go along with Kobashi's bad tendencies because he was the junior wrestler in the match. I have a hard time blaming him for Kobashi using the half nelson suplex as a transition spot (which he constantly did even against guys who were the underdog against him) and blowing off the leg selling. It's one of the reasons I think people other than Kawada or Taue working on Kobashi's leg, because they could reel him in, was a mistake. It's kind of a corollary to my thought that juniors should lay off the legwork to set up big submissions until really late because it's almost impossible to sell the leg in most juniors matches. Same for working Kobashi as an "underneath" guy. Leave the leg be and find something that won't throw a wrench into the way Kobashi likes to work.

Shrugged off body part work is pretty standard AJPW. The psychology was always that you could turn a body part into a weak point and attack it to gain the advantage, but just because the guy has a weak arm isn't going to stop Hansen from hitting the lariat or Misawa from hitting the elbow. Jun himself sold leg work the same wayin his Dome match against Hase a few months prior. I'd argue Kobashi's leg selling in that match was actually really good as moments like his leg giving out on a power bomb made it look like he was trying to ignore the pain than that his leg just wasn't hurting at all.

 

That said, I'd agree with your overall point about Akiyama being forced into going along with Kobashi's bad tendencies. He's commonly been put in the same group with Kobashi and Misawa as proponents of the stereotypical head drop and 2.9 heavy NOAH style, but his later work suggests that he was never really entirely on board with wrestling like that. His matches now don't have any head drops at all and seem to put on emphasis on the body of the match to build only to a couple of gripping near falls, as opposed to having a long stretch at the end of nonstop 2.9 counts. And, honestly, after seeing him do King's Road matches that aren't any more damaging the guys' bodies or their finishers than WWE main events, I've started rethink if Kobashi and Misawa were really as smart as I once thought they were, and it's also helped me appreciate Akiyama's own brilliance in his earlier career work.

[ohtani's jacket]

 

 

So walking through what I thought about that Lucha match wasn't really the point.

 

Sure. You just never hear a bad word about that match so I was curious.

 

 

Nobody had a bad word for the Steamer-Flair Wrestle War match for ages. It was accepted as an all-time classic, and in some circles as *the* all-time classic.

 

Until they did have a bad word for it.

 

It's possible that someone was critical of Wrestle War before Jewett, but he was the first I can recall knocking it down a peg. I don't think he called it a shitty match, but he didn't think it was an all-time classic, and give it one of hit working overs. And I think was met with resistance.

 

I'm sure you've run into that with movies: universal love/praise for something, yet someone (possibly even you) wonders, "WTF?"

 

 

I think you've misconstrued me. I'm not saying "how could you not like that that match?!", I'm legitimately curious as to why it fell flat. If you don't feel like explaining then it's no matter. I just feel like dissenting opinions are important in appraising a match.

[Matt D]

Akiyama is fucking amazing and I'll probably be the high vote for him. I have some bias which I shall now explain. You see, a lot of the characters in Japan are based on the idea of being "the strongest" and workers seem to have the mindset of wanting to be eternal champions of their promotions, which is a perfectly normal thing to strive for. Akiyama, while immensely talented, was slightly different. His character was never presented in that vein, he would regularly lose most of the strike exchanges and tests of strenght and have to use tactics and intelligence to overcome his "stronger" opponents.

That sounds more interesting than 95% of heavyweight Japanese wrestling to me. I should check him out at some point.

[Jetlag]

I also love the fact that the booking established Akiyama can be easily upset (beaten in just a few minutes if his opponent plays his cards right). It's lead to a number of great sprints throughout his career and people really buying into nearfalls on him in the early minutes of a match.

[TravJ1979]

 

 

 

So walking through what I thought about that Lucha match wasn't really the point.

 

Sure. You just never hear a bad word about that match so I was curious.

 

 

Nobody had a bad word for the Steamer-Flair Wrestle War match for ages. It was accepted as an all-time classic, and in some circles as *the* all-time classic.

 

Until they did have a bad word for it.

 

It's possible that someone was critical of Wrestle War before Jewett, but he was the first I can recall knocking it down a peg. I don't think he called it a shitty match, but he didn't think it was an all-time classic, and give it one of hit working overs. And I think was met with resistance.

 

I'm sure you've run into that with movies: universal love/praise for something, yet someone (possibly even you) wonders, "WTF?"

 

 

I think you've misconstrued me. I'm not saying "how could you not like that that match?!", I'm legitimately curious as to why it fell flat. If you don't feel like explaining then it's no matter. I just feel like dissenting opinions are important in appraising a match.

 

During my 15 years of being online, lurking or posting, on wrestling message boards, I've heard the same broken record from John Williams. The fact that people still engage him in 'debates' baffles me. While he is obviously intelligent, as I've enjoyed his analysis on AJPW and his old columns in the Torch, the fact that he, and the whole ToA crew, have this idea that being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian and shitting on everything that has ever been highly praised in wrestling somehow gives them a superior understanding of it is the epitome of annoyance.

 

There is a reason that John has a 'no podcast" rule. There is a reason that he does not participate in or submit ballots for projects such as the DVDVR 80's or GWE or Best of "x". There is a reason why he does neither of these, but still interjects himself in the discussion and debating thereof. It's because he can't stand the thought of being scrutinized later on about his picks/placements on ballots (voting) or having to think on his feet without the benefit of quote mining old posts to illustrate his stagnate talking points or point out contradictions from other posters. (podcasting). If I'm not mistaken his profession is in some way tied to the practice of law. That explains everything you need to know about the argumentative nature of one jdw.

 

This is the point where he would start quoting this post and pointing out that he participated in the DVDVR Best of the 90's poll for NJ, AJ and WCW. To that, I would point out that every since those were posted he's been hedging those statements with the benefit of hindsight as to not be locked into them and to not be able to be quote mined himself in the style he is so accustomed to doing. John's interactions with Parv are a prime example of and basically an encapsulation of his whole history online - A professional troll. I can imagine him as a child playing with a friend. They both have the same action figure, but John proclaims his is better simply because it is his. I can imagine him as a teenager arguing with friends that the bands he likes are better than the bands they like simply because he likes them. I can see him as an adult deciding to champion Bob Backlund ad nauseam just so that if/when popular opinion on Bob turns he can claim he lead the charge.

 

Or maybe John isn't the evil. Maybe it's "Jewett" and" Hoback". Maybe they roam the internet for matches that are being pimped as the greatest of all time just so they can rip it apart and have John parrot their opinions on message boards just to elicit reactions. This Mt. Rushmore of contrarian asshole trolls would rip apart The Passion because "Jesus didn't sell enough." Let me close in terms that they can understand:

 

Ever since you 'wash up on the shores of California" and started your crusade of elitism, you, "Hoback and Frank" have "tossed" every widely considered mat classic on the "proverbial woodpile." The practice of analyzing something to the point it means nothing is "getting a little long in the tooth." So break this post up into 20 different quotes so you can counterpoint each section with the one or two positive things you've said about wrestling among the hundreds of thousands of negative trolling comments on your resume so that the whole board can see that I was 'wrong."

 

- Travis

[jdw]

 

 

 

 

So walking through what I thought about that Lucha match wasn't really the point.

 

Sure. You just never hear a bad word about that match so I was curious.

 

 

Nobody had a bad word for the Steamer-Flair Wrestle War match for ages. It was accepted as an all-time classic, and in some circles as *the* all-time classic.

 

Until they did have a bad word for it.

 

It's possible that someone was critical of Wrestle War before Jewett, but he was the first I can recall knocking it down a peg. I don't think he called it a shitty match, but he didn't think it was an all-time classic, and give it one of hit working overs. And I think was met with resistance.

 

I'm sure you've run into that with movies: universal love/praise for something, yet someone (possibly even you) wonders, "WTF?"

 

 

I think you've misconstrued me. I'm not saying "how could you not like that that match?!", I'm legitimately curious as to why it fell flat. If you don't feel like explaining then it's no matter. I just feel like dissenting opinions are important in appraising a match.

 

This is the point where he would start quoting this post and pointing out that he participated in the DVDVR Best of the 90's poll for NJ, AJ and WCW. To that, I would point out that every since those were posted he's been hedging those statements with the benefit of hindsight as to not be locked into them and to not be able to be quote mined himself in the style he is so accustomed to doing.

 

 

Actually, I participated in all of the DVDVR 90s polls with the exception of Indy poll since I didn't watch any indy wrestling at the time.

 

I wrote up the two Pimping Posts mostly to get things added to people's ballots that hadn't been discussed, and to point out where folks had wrong info. The rest of the stuff I tossed out was just having fun with it. The three ballots that I wrote up we again mostly for fun and expressing what I thought at the time. They were far less of the big production number than they became over the years after.

 

I'm not entirely sure what you think I've hedged on those five pieces. I've spent nearly 20 years pimping my #1 pick on the New Japan ballot, and when it came up on this board in the Yearbooks, I was talking about it again. I've stated that I liked that I spent time/votes on a number of NJ heavyweight matches at a time when Juniors dominated the results.

 

Saying that the last time I watched the 6/98 Kawada-Kobashi match that it didn't strike me as being as good as I thought it was at the time isn't a hedge. It's an admission that a match I pimped more than just about anyone else doesn't hold up for me. Also that thing things I didn't care about the style as the decade went on were there in the match. I suspect we all have dozens, if not hundreds, of matches where we changed our thoughts on them after further reflection. Same goes for all forms of entertainment.

 

Would I change stuff? Sure. What? Who knows. In any one of those polls it would mean wading back into re-watching massive amounts of stuff. Would I like The Headlock Match as much? Would the fact that both are dead men cast a pall over it for me? Who knows. But I'm 100% certain that if I spend a year re watching everything from AJPW or NJPW from the 90s (or watching for the first time new shit that's come to light), my list would look different.

 

What I'd want to push may be different as well. Was Kawada vs Albright one of the 20 "best" matches of the 90s for AJPW? I didn't really think it was at the time, and suspect that would be the case now. But it deserved attention for being something very different from listing 10 variations of Kawada & Taue vs Misawa & Kobashi/Akiyama. There likely would be something on re-watch that struck me like that which would find it's way onto a list.

 

Which is kind of what this whole GWE 2.0 is all about. As Daniel has pointed out, if the same results get kicked out as last time, if no one thinks about other wrestlers and rethinks their old warhorses, it's a waste of time.

 

It's easy to put together a List.

 

The irony of your contrarian belief is that if I did a list, it would largely be as non-contrarian as Jerome's Top 10 ended up being. It's not like Mark Henry or King Kong Bundy would make my list. I'd also take a powder on all those fun guys in Europe, lucha remains a vast ocean that I've haven't gotten more than ankle deep in, and most of the stuff of the past decade leaves me pretty flat. Boring, non-contrarian, round up the usual suspects list.

 

Much like Daniel in general, I would find my own list boring to toss off in an evening. I would be more interested in seeing Daniel's eclectic list than even the final full results.

 

* * * * *

 

Not doing podcasts isn't because I don't want to be on record.

 

There are nearly 8000 posts here, and I've probably made at least four times that much in various places over the years. It's not hard to sift through here to find what I think, and toss it in my face if people think I shy away from it. It's frankly easier to take the written word and toss it around than having to listen to all those hours of Flair podcasts and try to transcribe the various themes and examples for something to respond to.

 

I don't do podcasts because I think the form is largely a circle jerk. That's not just limited to pro wrestling ones. I've thought that long before it became such a beloved form for wrestling fans. Simmons' podcasts were and are circle jerks. Carolla's were and are. I thought that Meltzer's old Radio Eyada stuff was, and the current thingy never struck me as any different when I slogged through some.

 

Now one could toss back that posting on message boards and newsgroups is a circle jerk, and all of us have been doing it for 20 or so years. I have no defense for that. But it is the circle jerk I prefer: reading what people think rather than listening to them babble about it.

 

* * * * *

 

I get wanting to kick me in the nuts, and everyone associated with me. You could have tossed Yohe in there as well to go for a grand slam.

 

On the other hand, Hoback is about the least contrarian and least elitist wrestling fan there is. He can watch a Tito vs Orndorff match, have a blast, and call it a **** match. We watched Hogan vs Orndorff from the Big Event on Saturday night, and he loved it. In turn, we watched the Sasha Banks vs Bayley title change earlier, and he loved that too. So you have the wrong guy there. Jewett and I might have been (or are... have no idea with Frank anymore) elitist snobs. James is likely further removed from it than any poster I've seen here. He just happened to not like a match that (i) lots of people like, and (ii) he really, really, really wanted to like. Kind of like the folks who are bored by 06/03/94 after it's been pimped for decades. It happens. I suspect we all have one, or a lot, of the Usual Suspects that we don't think a ton of.

 

I'd also say that tossing out "elitist" on this board is more than a bit goofy, especially in the middle of a Greatest Wrestler Ever poll. We've all seen large chunks of this community tosses off in their entirety as elitists. You can go back to Loss having discussions with Bryan Alverez over Shawn Michaels. You can go back to any of us here who have ever been in wider WON Hall of Fame discussions getting tossed off by the "main stream" voters calling us elitists. You can look at how a slew of us were called elitist puro snobs by sheet writers... that is if they used the word puro rather than claiming it was a made up word by us gaijin snobs.

 

Seriously, what does the rest of the hardcore wrestling world think when we all pimp of Fujiwara? They think we're contrarian elitist wackos. Look around: you are in the online center of elitist pro wrestling contrarian thought. Embrace it.

[Loss]

I think there are criticisms against jdw that are valid, just as there are for any of us, but the idea that he's not willing to have his opinions picked over for years and years is not one of them at all.

[GOTNW]

I have no idea what the consensus on Fujiwara was in 1992 on RSPW boards or w/e but the idea he is only regarded as an all time great here and on dvdvr/segunda caida is laughable and completely incorrect. Maybe Meltzer's followers don't puch much stock into him but that means less than it ever did. I mean it makes sense that someone who doesn't spend time interacting with younger fans would think that "things are how they once were" but they're not.

[Loss]

I think the point is that PWO is a bubble within a bubble within a bubble, and while we've formed some ideas that run counter to the long-running narrative about good wrestling, outside of this bubble, thoughts are pretty much what they always were. I don't frequent other boards enough to know if that is true or not.

[rvd356]

That's some nerdy ass shit up there. It's kinda embarrassing that there could possibly be an elite to us DORKS. Like do people really change their opinion to go with the masses on something as ridiculous as this art form? I guess it happens in music obviously.

 

To user that liked Kobashi/Akiyama 98 as the GOAT for AJPW or period, THANK YOU. I like to see people real opinion because even in text it's see through, and G damn I'm tired of people saying Kobashi is bad, unless X. Now I understand being annoyed at "Fighting Spirit" and his subsequent 'Hulk Ups' because it's been copied in such a horrible streamlined way by the American independent wrestling scene for the past 15 years. But lets be real, everyone of you thought it was awesome when you first saw him no sell something, scream and knock someone out with the Lariat. He took Hogan's 'Hulkamania' gimmick and applied it to his character and Baba placed it in the All Japan Universe ®.

 

Anyway I'm not an expert, just a fan. I do a lot more watching than writing. SO I decided to watch 10 matches atleast from each guy I haven't seen enough of. And I'm sure glad I picked Akiyama first! I have always thought he was awesome, but have never sought him out individually like Kobashi, Misawa, KENTA etc. of course I'd seen the 12.06.96 tag and the 2004 NOAH GHC match with Kobashi but hadn't looked much beyond.

 

vs. Mitsuharu Misawa - AJPW 02.27.00 - [ ***** ] wow how did I miss this match, and why is it not more famous? I mean I've only heard great things about it, but that is not on too many occasions. I think I liked it(and subsequently the previous encounters which I will get to) because of it being a bit simpler, and therefore more natural for me, while still having all the stuff unique to All Japan. Like there wasnt 6 half Nelson Suplexes directly on the head, and 6 tigers Suplexes off the ramp to the floor(still the best spot ever) like some of the Kobashi-Misawa matches and it wasn't overly long. The Exploder off the apron was super awesome but not directly dangerous(see dammit now I'm equating every move with worth! I hate that!), a sweet Brainbuster and a sick Exploder to finally beat him.

 

I'm not good at reviews obviously, but I am gonna look at a couple more of this series and other stuff of his. You know the latest match I have seen of Juns is his TC loss to Funaki and the TC match with Mutoh(bad), but it was so good to see Akiyama himself look so strong. I mean, what other great 90s wrestlers do we still have doing great shit?

 

He really reminded me of Daniel Bryan. I'm sure Bryan meant for that, but it's a good thing. Hey maybe he'll get fired and we can see that match?

[jdw]

I have no idea what the consensus on Fujiwara was in 1992 on RSPW boards or w/e but the idea he is only regarded as an all time great here and on dvdvr/segunda caida is laughable and completely incorrect. Maybe Meltzer's followers don't puch much stock into him but that means less than it ever did. I mean it makes sense that someone who doesn't spend time interacting with younger fans would think that "things are how they once were" but they're not.

 

So if one posted on The Board that Fujiwara was one of the 10 best workers in wrestling history, do you think that the majority of Board posters would agree with that?

 

Not the majority of folks who might respond in the thread, since it's likely that our pals would come running in to support.

 

But the majority of active Board posters if we forced them to vote Yes/No?

 

They really would look at us like we look at the people who think that Shawn Michaels is one of the 10 best workers ever.

 

I suspect that the same would be the case if you asked the question at the highest traffic Japanese language hardcore puroresu website. Not a sub-niche one like ours or DVDVR, or a blog like Phil & Cos. But a broader collection of regular old hardcore puroresu fans, the vast majority of whom are either digging current New Japan, or the New Japan and All Japan of prior generations (in the Wrestling Classics equiv sections), etc. Do you really think there would be agreement with the thought here that Fujiwara is an all-time great Top 10 Japanese worker?

 

I don't think that would be the case. Doubt you do, either.

 

I haven't said we're unique in this. Nor that we don't get new converts when exposing people to him. But it's a subniche of fans.

[Jimmy Redman]

I have to admit I find Akiyama kind of underwhelming, especially relative to the high praise he's getting from so many.

 

I think more than anything I just find him a little...bland. Even allowing for puro guys not being the most colourful characters on earth. Like, with the Four Pillars, I can watch them and immediately see how each one has his own unique character and how that plays out in the ring - Misawa the stoic ace, Kawada the grumpy asskicker, Kobashi the intensely emotional offense machine, Taue the giant jerk. In comparison Akiyama comes off to me as just...The Guy That Came After Those Guys. I can't pin him down.

 

Things get better as we move into the late 00s and he becomes the pissed off old guy. But I've enjoyed that role better when played by others, and I still don't get a sense of Akiyama putting anything unique into that role either. He doesn't stand out to me. I enjoy his matches when the other guy is bringing something interesting to the table: Ogawa in 1998 being the plucky underdog, KENTA in 2009 selling his neck, Inoue in 2006 being an utter, utter shit. I watch the Revolution 2005 tags and all I can think is how much better Tenryu is, even at 55. He's just The Other Guy in the match.

 

I'm not dismissing him, because he's been in an awful lot of good matches over a very long period of time. I really love the Misawa 2000 torch-passing match. But I definitely don't see him as an upper tier candidate.

[Microstatistics]

I watch the Revolution 2005 tags and all I can think is how much better Tenryu is, even at 55. He's just The Other Guy in the match.

In his defense, he was pretty much a supporting player in those matches with the main focus being on Kobashi vs. Tenryu and also on a fired up Taue in the September match. Also Tenryu is an awfully high standard to compare to .