Tatsumi Fujinami

[Childs]

I'm not sure he needed a lot of overt character work. His character was that he was a great, classy wrestler who'd give a hell of an effort in any situation. And the fans loved him for it.

[WingedEagle]

I also wouldn't discount the fiery, comeback babyface aspect of his character. Would flip that switch on a regular basis and it could be counted on to succeed all the time, especially with blood.

[JerryvonKramer]

The Bob Backlund of NJ, in a way.

[Loss]

Steamboat.

[goodhelmet]

So am I going to end up being the high vote on Fujinami? Right now he's my #9 and I could see him sliding into my #5-6.

 

 

I have him as #8.

[Microstatistics]

#6 with possible #4-5

[DR Ackermann]

I've got him at #3 right now

[Childs]

 

So am I going to end up being the high vote on Fujinami? Right now he's my #9 and I could see him sliding into my #5-6.

 

 

I have him as #8.

 

 

Me too. Great minds

 

As for the Steamboat comparison, Fujinami didn't milk sympathy like Ricky as that wasn't really something a top Japanese guy would build his style on. But in spirit, I can see it.

[Parties]

By ace I only mean "top star", but I suppose that was really Inoki during the 80s? With Fujinami as "Workhorse #2/#1A guy"? If people have character aspects that comprise an ace that they think Jumbo better embodied as "the man", that's fine. I just mean that I was more impressed with his showing on his 80s set than I am by the 80s Tsuruta I've seen. The biggest Jumbo fans are also factoring his mid-70s and early 90s stuff into the assessment. Late 70s/early 90s Fujinami is underrated: Fujinami 78-79 is better than Jumbo at the same time, but Jumbo '90-'91 is better than what I've seen of Fujinami at that time.

 

TL;DR: Fujinami's currently my #3, Tsuruta's my #24.

[ScToTeE]

Lately I have been going through the NJPW '80s set (for the first time) while concurrently re-reviewing my AJPW Top 30. I should finish 1988 later today.

 

By this stage, I have neither Tsuruta nor Tenryu ahead of Fujinami for that time period. That's almost certainly not going to change. In terms of best wrestlers working Japan that decade, I have him at third behind Fujiwara and Choshu. I could see the case for pushing him ahead of them too. In fact, this post itself will probably convince me to place him ahead of Choshu.

 

It is true that his best singles match does not reach the same level as the best singles matches Tsuruta, Tenryu, Hansen, Funk and Fujiwara delivered. I won't deny that. But he smokes them all for sheer volume of very good to excellent singles matches spanning the entire decade. And the dynamism is astounding: junior-style (against some real slugs), mat-wrestling, epic bombs-throwing, brawling, working beneath super heavies etc. He's also very good in the tag setting. He's perhaps the most consistent and reliable worker that primarily performed in Japan during the '80s. I'd argue that those other wrestlers (Tsuruta, Tenryu, and Hansen in particular) have a significant drop off between the handful of high-end singles they delivered and the bulk of their remaining output for the '80s. Funk was gone by '83 as well. FWIW, I would point out that Fujinami had better singles matches with Choshu than Tsuruta and Tenryu did as well.

 

Fujinami already has tens of worthwhile and varied matches by the time Tsuruta and Tenryu really start gaining steam for me. I pinpoint that at around 1984-85 with a few high points for each before that. 1986 and 1988-89 AJPW is churning out sensational tags that both Tsuruta and Tenryu are key components of. Meanwhile Fujinami anchors the '84 Inoki's Army / Ishingun gauntlet and sweeps through the more questionable wrestlers. I don't believe that should be ignored as I doubt that match is a MOTDC if the opening bouts didn't have Fujinami as the binding agent. He's phenomenal versus Fujiwara and Maeda in the NJPW vs. UWF gauntlet. And he's very much a reason for the success of those superb elimination tags. I particularly enjoy his hopelessly outmatched underdog role at the end of one of them, trying to fend off Saito and Inoki with wild air-swings. He's also one of the best bleeders I have ever seen.

 

It has been a few years since I watched the '70s output for both Fujinami and Tsuruta. I probably would not enjoy that style as much now. But I do recall enjoying both with the slight edge going to Tatsumi. The '90s is a tremendously large blind spot for me, the world over, and so cannot comment on what happened after 1989.

[JerryvonKramer]

Well he's made a believer out of me. I will not finish the decade before my ballot (may have to beeline some of the NJ vs UWF feud), but he really was a fantastic pro wrestler and a very very good babyface with natural charisma and fire. Could work just about any style opponent and was pretty versatile in what he could do himself.

 

Top 15 finish as a bare minimum. But anything up to top 5 possible.

[InYourCase]

Well he's made a believer out of me. I will not finish the decade before my ballot (may have to beeline some of the NJ vs UWF feud), but he really was a fantastic pro wrestler and a very very good babyface with natural charisma and fire. Could work just about any style opponent and was pretty versatile in what he could do himself.

 

Top 15 finish as a bare minimum. But anything up to top 5 possible.

And this is without liking the Choshu feud? Because that's what really elevated him in my eyes. That and his work with Maeda, who I know I'm much higher on than you.

[JerryvonKramer]

I love the stable vs. stable feud and his performances in the tag matches and gauntlet definitely elevated him from "this guy is really good" to "wow, this guy is REALLY good" in my eyes.

 

I did not love the singles matches and had them all in ***1/2-***3/4 range which for a feud of that magnitude is disappointing. But I put that more on Choshu than on Fujinami cos I felt the same way about the Jumbo singles matches.

[WingedEagle]

Will have more thoughts later that likely echo Parv's as I'm at the same point as him in the NJ set. Its a minor point, but there is no wrestler in history who runs the ropes better and with more fury than Tatsumi Fujinami. I could watch him do that without an opponent anywhere near the ring and it would be glorious.

[InYourCase]

Can we debunk this theory about Fujinami not being a good worker in the 90's, also? Look, he's not like he was in 1983, but I've adored him in the WAR feud. His fire is still there and his performances, while nothing may be as good as the Choshu series, are still great. People are discrediting his 90s run and I don't get it. Dude was outstanding. He's moved into #4 for me, one spot above Rey.

 

I want to echo what Dylan said on page 1, also -- Fujinami was an excellent bleeder. To a point that I think it deserves to be talked about more.

[DR Ackermann]

In a lot of Fujinami's 90s stuff he was really poor as a worker. I think he gets a bit better as time goes on to the point that he does have strong performances like in the WAR feud and the 93 Hase G1 match. He's better in the WAR matches than Chono or Mutoh and even Choshu at times. I haven't seen much of his work later in the decade but I look forward to checking it out.

[WingedEagle]

Very much under the radar in '92 and '93 with some standout singles matches during that time, as well as playing a vital role in a ton of tags. He'll definitely be the highest person I rate from New Japan.

[soup23]

Really don't subscribe to Fujinami as outstanding in the 1990's. In the WAR feud mentioned, he was behind Chono, Hashimoto, Tenryu, and Hara in my eyes. I definitely think he was still good in that feud and in a sprinkling of other stuff throughout the decade, but outstanding feels like a reach and I still think that becomes a prickly path where you could point to someone like the 92 Rumble and WrestleWar 1990 and say Flair was outstanding in the 1990's (don't think that was the case either). I don't view Fujinami's 1990's as a negative against him, but it also wasn't weighed as a positive for me so therefore it became a neutral effect and Fujinami landed at 21 on my list exclusively for 1978-1988.

[supremebve]

I think Fujinami is the guy who will have the biggest jump on my 2026 list. I watched enough to know that he is great and he's pretty high on my list. The issue is that I didn't have nearly enough time to do a really deep dive in his work. He's phenomenally good at almost every aspect of in-ring wrestling. I remember when Ric Flair said that Fujinami was the best Japanese wrestler he'd ever been in the ring with, I thought he was just putting him over at his hall of fame induction. Now, I kind of understand why he would say that. I got into Japanese wrestling through the All Japan Heavyweights and the New Japan Jr. Heavyweights, somehow I just plain missed Fujinami until very recently.

[Loss]

Really don't subscribe to Fujinami as outstanding in the 1990's. In the WAR feud mentioned, he was behind Chono, Hashimoto, Tenryu, and Hara in my eyes. I definitely think he was still good in that feud and in a sprinkling of other stuff throughout the decade, but outstanding feels like a reach and I still think that becomes a prickly path where you could point to someone like the 92 Rumble and WrestleWar 1990 and say Flair was outstanding in the 1990's (don't think that was the case either). I don't view Fujinami's 1990's as a negative against him, but it also wasn't weighed as a positive for me so therefore it became a neutral effect and Fujinami landed at 21 on my list exclusively for 1978-1988.

 

Agree with this. I don't think Fujinami was bad in the 90s, but he was very much a guy who was just there. There are isolated moments where he's great, but he never really sustained it for more than the occasional one-off performance. Shiro Koshinaka is not someone I'm particularly a fan of, but he was a far more consistently good performer during those years than Fujinami in my eyes.

[ohtani's jacket]

The 90s should have theoretically been Koshinaka's peak, though.

 

I think Fujinami is pretty clearly a top 10 Japanese worker all-time, and I don't think he needs good stuff from the 90s to make that claim. I've also liked a lot of his tag performances from '92 and '93, but they'd feel more crucial if he needed those performances to place. He doesn't, so all they really prove is that he wasn't completely washed up in the 90s. I don't think his WAR stuff is "holy shit, this guy's still great!" level work, but lowered expectations, and flying under the "smark" radar for so long, work in his favour, and the overall feel of his stuff is that it's pleasantly enjoyable.

 

I will say that I would rate his MUGA match with Nishimura over just about any match his 70s and 80s contemporaries had post 1990.

[ohtani's jacket]

That match with Hashimoto from '94 is pretty badass. Fujinami takes a hell of a beating and sells it beautifully. I would have liked to have seen a bit more offense since the offense he did get in looked great (especially the strikes), but Hashimoto's onslaught was a tough thing to stop. I'm guessing there are more cool old man performances from Fujinami that have slipped through the cracks. 

[Boss Rock]

I love 90's Fujinami. The aforementioned Hashimoto series of course, but also the G1 final against Hase and the nose break Dome match against Tenryu.

[Makai Club #1]

Fujinami has a couple of gems against Koshinaka (6/2/94), Chono (31/05/91) and Ishikawa (04/01/93).

[ohtani's jacket]

The 5/91 Chono match is also very good, and a straight wrestling match too. Is it time to rewrite the narrative on 90s Fujinami?