Kantaro Hoshino

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Ditch]

Okay, I just wrote this long post about Kengo Kimura, saying there isn't much of a case for Kengo. I compared Kengo to Yatsu. Hoshino is an even better measuring stick. Hoshino would CARRY THE HELL out of guys, night after night. He just BROUGHT IT and looked like the baddest man on the planet under 5'3". Those are great performances. The physical effort, the fire. And from what little footage we have, the Yamaha Brothers team looked incredibly fun, like a proto Midnight Express in terms of teamwork and moves.

 

Ultimately, I think footage is Hoshino's biggest weakness. His peak was late '70s to early '80s, and as an undercard guy not much made tape. Unlike Destroyer, who will likely place well in spite of limited footage, Hoshino's best stuff isn't MOTDC-caliber. If we had more Hoshino, I suspect the case would be easy to make. But we have what we have, and he has to compete with those who started a few years later and have 10-50x as much to watch and judge from. I won't rule out Hoshino, but it's tough.

[Dylan Waco]

Hoshino is a weird case of a guy who is a lock for my ballot, but won't finish super high for the reason Ditch outlines. I suspect he's a Tommy Rich-type who is an all time great, but we don't have quite enough footage to back it up. Still what we do have is awesome and shows a lot of range. Not a lot of guys can do comedy spots with Andre, or work as a bruising rudo asskicker against Liger, without fundamentally altering the way they work but he could. I love his weirdo punches an the way he could change speeds and bring unpredictable things to matches that might otherwise be predictable. I will find a place for a guy who looks like Elvin from the Cosby Show, 100 out of 100 times

[Superstar Sleeze]

I can’t sleep and so I started with the dead last thread and am working my way forward until my tired.

Besides the Liger singles match, I think I have only seen Hoshino tags, if you watch him only once, it is immediate why he is a DVDVR/PWO favorite. His punch combination are Memphis-level and that really stands out in Japan where closed fists are rare. He has a natural charisma to him. He figuratively leaps off the canvas. He was standing out in ten-man’s with people like Inoki, Fujiwara, Maeda and Fujinami! That’s insane! 
 

I cant vote for him in good conscience because I haven’t seen enough but guys like Hoshino are my favorite. They make immediate, lasting impression because they are a star. I am a sucker for stars. 

[Jetlag]

Definitely check out the Inoki and Fujinami singles. Hoshino definitely doesn't have many singles matches to watch sadly. He also had one singles match post retirement against I think Gedo which was stupidly better than a match involving an old man who was clearly out of training for a while had any right to be.