Grimmas Posted September 21, 2014 Report Share Posted September 21, 2014 Discuss here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimmas Posted October 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Anybody? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Haven't watched RINGS in years, but his 30 minute draw with Tamura is the most beautiful pro-wrestling match I've ever seen. Terrific shootstyle worker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Cooke Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Like Sakuraba, a better shooter than worker but he may find a spot in the 90's on my list Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Oh, that shootfight against Gilbert Yvel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Cooke Posted October 19, 2015 Report Share Posted October 19, 2015 His RINGS shoots with Frank Shamrock (9/97), Big Nog (8/00), the DEEP fight against Lil Nog (9/02) are all against three excellent opponents with Kosaka coming out as being able to hold his own against potentially three MMA HOF guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjp7798 Posted May 7, 2021 Report Share Posted May 7, 2021 If he's missing out on my list he's only BARELY missing. Probably the RINGS candidate who suffers the most from lack of volume. RINGS takes a giant leap up in quality around 96 (and thats not to say it wasnt awesome prior) and is primarily attributed to Tamura but just as much credit should be given to TK who debuted that year and was churning out quality matches from the start. Especially his own trilogy with Volk Han. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DylanZero Posted May 19, 2021 Report Share Posted May 19, 2021 TK is awesome, I won't rank him high but I'll have room for him on the back end. Everyone knows Tamura and Han, but guys like TK & Yoshihisa Yamamoto deserve a lot of props too for their work at the top of the RINGS echelon and deserve serious consideration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap Posted May 19, 2021 Report Share Posted May 19, 2021 I won't be at all surprised if I have him in the back 1/3rd of my list somewhere. That above-mentioned match with Tamura is absolutely masterful and indicative of his overall quality. Of course they aren't all bangers, but he brings that combination of grappling, urgency, and character to a lot of his matches. I'm sure there will be 100 wrestlers competing for the last 20-30 final spots and I can very much see him among the strongest of those competing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjp7798 Posted May 24, 2021 Report Share Posted May 24, 2021 I truly believe he's the star of the 04 U-STYLE match with Tamura which is an achievement in and of itself because Tamura is Tamura. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elliott Posted May 25, 2021 Report Share Posted May 25, 2021 I feel like the standard answer for best shootstylist ever is one of Tamura, Han & Fujiwara. I think I'd put Kohsaka #4 and the only reason he's not comfortably there with them on a Mt Rushmore is the longevity issue effects Kohsaka even more. As good as anyone when he was working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control21 Posted December 6, 2021 Report Share Posted December 6, 2021 I've been finishing up my RINGS watch through and I think Tsuyoshi Kohsaka might be one of the best professional wrestlers ever from a technical standpoint. Volk Han is obviously a great example of a super rookie and someone who had a very high batting average match-for-match, but I think Tsuyoshi Kohsaka is overlooked when having that discussion. I don't think Kohsaka ever had a bad match and even his stuff in NJPW was pretty solid. In terms of ability, he's up there with Kiyoshi Tamura and Kazushi Sakuraba in terms of having natural gifts and tremendous grappling ability that could probably be considered generational. Not only that, he knew how professional wrestling worked and the match structure in his matches was usually very good. He wasn't flashy like Tamura or Han, but his matches were very believable and he gave some tremendous moments like his Judo throw on Tamura in the 1-23-99 match or having a bloody 30-minute draw with Yamamoto in 1997. He's very high on my list at the moment and I don't see that changing. Kohsaka's best matches. Italics = best of the best - Kohsaka vs Daisuke Ikeda (12/24/94) Kohsaka vs Sergei Sousserov (6/17/95) Kohsaka vs Masayuki Naruse (7/18/95) Kohsaka vs Grom Zaza (12/19/95) Kohsaka vs Hans Nijman (3/25/96) Kohsaka vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (4/26/96) Kohsaka vs Volk Han (7/16/96) Kohsaka vs Han (8/24/96) Kohsaka vs Han (11/22/96) Kohsaka vs Mikhail Ilyukhin (1/22/97) Kohsaka vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (4/4/97) Kohsaka vs Kiyoshi Tamura (4/22/97) Kohsaka vs Zaza (7/22/97) Kohsaka vs Ilyukhin (11/20/97) Kohsaka vs Kenichi Yamamoto (6/20/98) Kohsaka vs Tamura (6/27/98) Kohsaka vs Ilyukhin (9/21/98) Kohsaka vs Tamura (1/23/99) Kohsaka vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (5/22/99) Kohsaka vs Yoshihiro Takayama (1/4/03) Kohsaka vs Nagata (5/14/05) Kohsaka vs Tamura (2/4/04) Bonus - Shamrock vs Kohsaka (9/26/97) and Kohsaka vs Yvel (4-23-99). Both shoot matches, but very good and they resemble Pancrase-style shoots more than MMA as you might recognize it today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Cooke Posted December 6, 2021 Report Share Posted December 6, 2021 "Kohsaka vs Kiyoshi Tamura (4/22/97)" I still argue this is a shoot but it's a great match regardless. It's one of those matches where you see UWF style turning into something real. This isn't the greatness shoot style match or fight ever, but it is one where the blurring of lines was able to lead to something real - Sakuraba vs. Vernon White and Sakuraba vs. Newton where the fights are real yet you could see it being worked as a UWF style match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control21 Posted December 6, 2021 Report Share Posted December 6, 2021 14 minutes ago, Tim Cooke said: "Kohsaka vs Kiyoshi Tamura (4/22/97)" I still argue this is a shoot but it's a great match regardless. It's one of those matches where you see UWF style turning into something real. This isn't the greatness shoot style match or fight ever, but it is one where the blurring of lines was able to lead to something real - Sakuraba vs. Vernon White and Sakuraba vs. Newton where the fights are real yet you could see it being worked as a UWF style match. Yeah, it's very hard to tell, but I think it was a worked match that was made to look realistic like Pancrase (Maeda was heavily influenced by Pancrase and reacted a lot to it), or at least a "worked shoot" like Tamura vs Yamamoto from 1996. We see a lot of matches that look like this match from about 1997 onwards as Maeda wanted the product to look more and more realistic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makai Club #1 Posted December 12, 2021 Report Share Posted December 12, 2021 Honestly Kohsaka is behind Tamura, Volk Han, Yammamoto, Maeda for favoruite RINGS wrestlers, which is likley sacriliage for RINGS fans, but he was still incredible and caught upto the rest quickly despite starting later than the ones I mentioned. He will definitely make my list, but perhaps the back end of it, as of right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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