Alexander Otsuka

[elliott]

You would remember the Matsunaga match if you saw it! Its outrageous

[mjp7798]

Elliott, I had been looking for that match for ages due to your rec and finally found it.  Holy shit.  Unbelievable spectacle.  It's the Otsuka show and everything that makes him a true top half guy.

[elliott]

Yessss! I'm so glad you were able to find it and it was worth the wait!!! Just a completely insane match. Sort of everything you could hope for out of a Shoot Style vs Garbage Style match and then even more. 

[HeadCheese]

Feels like a better Kurt Angle in a way and I really like Kurt Angle. Proabably making my list but, not sure where he'll rank though probably with Munenori Sawa as my favorite shoot style wrestler.

Really cool video essay on him.

 

 

[Ma Stump Puller]

I had Alexander Otsuka at #66. Otsuka's main appeal for me was that he was a legitimate athletic freak, someone who could grapple you one minute and do springboard moonsaults the next without exactly worrying about how those two worlds would converge. He could've probably been a solid MMA fighter but he instead decided to throw himself around on a mat for a living. Generally what I also enjoy is that he's very much committed to the shtick of being a full on-grappler, he sucks with strikes (even to the point of making them seem as such) nor does he really want to use them. Sometimes that works out, sometimes he gets outgrappled by someone even better or kicked into unconsciousness, either way he only really has one way of doing things. 

The main reason why I don't have him higher is generally down to his longevity. His PRIDE commitments meant that he was essentially DOA for a good couple of years and only able to do a couple of dates a year, which is unfortunate since by the time he comes back wear and tear has taken a considerable toil on him physically and he is nowhere near the man he was in the 90's or early 2000's, to the point where some years he's just doing has-been tags for the majority of the year. He does get some good matches on occasion but generally watching his stuff if he wasn't over a Battlarts logo or with Ishikawa exactly was just so forgettable unfortunately. That said you still have I would say a great number of years where he is entertaining as anything to watch, certainly nothing like him these days either.