Ricky Fuyuki

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[soup23]

Sentimental favorite for me. LIked him the best of the Footloose tag with Kawada and they of course had some great matches with Furnas/Krofatt. However, he has really shined in a lot of the FMW stuff I have watched at being an extremely limited worker but being able to overcome that with storytelling and charisma in the ring. He potrays a sleazy heel top boss so well and looks like he is straight from the pages of a Batman comic book. I can see him obtaining one my last few spots on a top 100.

[Dylan Waco]

I'll write more about this concept soon, but he falls into the "want to vote for" category. That said I need justification for guys in that realm, which means I need some late stage FMW recs for him. I remember enjoying him their, but I havent' watched any of that in ages and don't know where to start.

 

I did think he was awesome in Footloose to the point where I thought he was clearly better than Kawada, and one of the best few guys in AJPW in 88/89 which is saying something considering the talent in All Japan during that period.

[El-P]

One of the best music theme ever. And the greatest, most surrealistic, most pro-wrestling post-mortem sendoff ever.

I haven't watched the Footloose in ages, but I don't remember thinking Fuyuki was better than Kawada back then. I do love the team though.

His FMW stuff is probably one of the greatest case of overachieving ever this side of DDP.

[Jetlag]

Fuyuki seems dreadfully underrated. He has a ton of hidden gems in the 90s. And Fuyuki Gun were just awesome. Fuyuki is the glue holding that stuff together by being a spectacular prick. I have yet to dive into his FMW stuff, but if it ends up just being half as awesome he should be a lock.

 

https://reverseviperhold.blogspot.com/search/label/hiromichi fuyuki

 

 

Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Jado & Gedo & Hiromichi Fuyuki - EPIC

Alas, the final! And this was a total blast, too. Basically Fuyuki Gun try to do their usual spiel and run into a brickwall. Tenryu and crew wouldn’t have their triple teaming shit, and Fuyuki and his goons got the tables turned on them. Mostly Hamaguchi and Kitahara potatoeing and stretching Jado and Gedo. Anytime Tenryu would come in he would kick someone in the face or chop them in the throat really hard. Fuyuki looked damn great and may have been the best guy in the match. He would constantly run in to make these really violent saves by kicking people in the face, then drop elbows, slap Tenryu, are lariat someone in the jaw. It was as if you had two Tenryus in the match! It builds to a really hot second half with Hamaguchi running wild, and Kendo Nagasaki running in to cause more chaos with a fire extinguisher. It could have ended on that interference spot Attitude Era style and it would’ve been pretty great, but then we also get Kitahara having his leg taken out and stubbornly trying to survive against the nefarious Fuyuki. Great shit, a worthy cap of to this great tournament that produced more great matches than an entire month of 2021 pro wrestling. Wrestle and Romance.

 

Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo vs. Hiroshi Itakura & Ichiro Yaguchi & Hideo Takayama

It’s nice to get a full version of that NSPW main event. And this was a pretty great match. Everyone looked good potatoeing the shit out of each other. Fuyuki was so great here punching and stomping these kickpadded wannabe shooters into oblivion, at one point even doing a Terry Funk combo, and as usual there were numerous cool cut offs and double teams from Fuyuki-Gun. Yaguchi was doing a sambo gimmick here, and he is a lot better as a dimestore Volk Han with cool kicks than as a shitty facepainted brawler. At one point he just ragdolled Gedo with a cool wrist throw and that was probably the coolest thing he ever did. Itakura was cool here working fast paced junior sequences with Jado and Gedo, and Hido was there to kick, bleed and get the life beaten out of him. Miss when wrestling was simple and violent.

BRAND NEW HERO BIG CHALLENGE: Takeshi Sato vs. Kodo Fuyuk

Man, I could watch Fuyuki do high pitched yelling and beating the crud off of a sucker all day long. Really fun match with Sato hitting hard kicks from odd angles and Fuyuki just creaming him.

Shiro Koshinaka & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Ashura Hara & Hiromichi Fuyuki

Another round of beefy dudes clobbering eachother. This wasn't peak WAR interpromotional material, but I still probably liked the best out of all the matches on the show. Particularily because the whole match felt thoroughly violent, and Fuyuki and Koshinaka were really at each other's throat. They randomly broke out into this super violent exchange that lead to a poor sap getting punched repeatedly and all was right in the world. I continue to enjoy Goto in these Heisei Ishingun tags as old guy with 2 moves who comes in to lariat and backdrop fools and nothing else, altough there was some sloppiness on his part. Hara's career was winding down but he could still take some big bumps. These matches pretty much write themselves but they still work in some things you won't expect.

The Great Kabuki & Masao Orihara & Keisuke Yamada vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki & Gedo & Jado

This is an awesome looking match up on paper, and it really delivered on it’s promise. The Fuyuki & underlings trio really is one of the most consistently entertaining acts of the 90s in their scummy evilness. And Orihara is a sleazy treasure in this match, flying in and out of the scenery, having heated exchanges with Gedo etc. Kabuki is also awesome just tagging in, hitting awesome punches and superkicks and spraying mist. The juicy part is the heat segment on Yamada, which is really well executed and also really bloody. There was also an unusual intrusion when Yamada’s sister(?) tried to save her brother from Fuyukis nefarious tactics and Fuyuki shakes the shit out of her, it was totally unexpected an really underlines Fuyukis scummyness. Yamada survives a ton of punishment in this, almost too much, but then again he was bankrolling everyone and putting all these awessome IWA Japan shows together, so I guess I am fine with it, and the finish is a good one.

 

Kendo Nagasaki vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki (WAR 11/29/1994)

Insane spectacle, which may have been even better than the previous match between Tenryu and Kitahara (which was great). Easily the best Nagasaki singles match I've seen ever, hell it's probably the best for Fuyuki too. This is a lumberjack match which in WAR means guys dressed like ninjas or wearing devil masks and tracksuits are stalking near the ring. Initially it's fun with both guys being locked in the ring to potatoe each other, but things take a crazy turn when Nagasaki takes a big bump to the outside (a remarkable thing in itself) and for no reason decides to shove Tenryu aside. Tenryu gets pissed off and they proceed to hurl chairs at each other as you can feel the tension growing exponentially. Jado & Gedo proceed to get involved, braining Nagasaki with a chair, leaving him bleeding like crazy. It leads to this really fascinating ending run where they just keep escalating the violence while guys from the outside keep getting involved. Nagasaki is especially of the charts here, bleeding and absorbing some sick headbutts and lariats but then turning around and doing some psychotic things, throwing the referee around, teeing off on Fuyuki with chairs, undoing the ring ropes to strangle his opponent, hitting his awesome superkick. I've never really thought of lumberjack matches as a great stipulation or cared for matches that have guys not involved in the match getting involved., but fuck this was great.

[Matt D]

Hyper-focused experience with him so far, but as I've been going through 89, I'm not overly moved by him in Footloose. He's fine. The matches are fine. Where I find him really interesting is when he's put into a different sort of scenario, like when he tags with Ogawa against then Can-Ams on the 11/20/89 handheld, or recently released full 7/11/89 30 minute draw with Kobashi, matches where he's a more senior guy and can lead things a bit more. I look forward to following him into the 90s.