Ikuto Hidaka

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Jetlag]

I really like Hidaka. I'd say he's probably the best indy junior next to Dick Togo and he always looks good when working quasi shootstyle, but he also has some stuff that touches on the worst aspects of current junior style wrestling and parts of his career are pretty dead teaming with that slug Fujita or the last 3 years in Zero1. The 2010 Chris Hero singles match is a killer though. Def. a guy worth going back and watching all his stuff, including the ECW run.

[DylanZero]

Since I nominated him (special thanks to dawho for doing the heavy lifting on dealing out the reviews) he was a guy I wanted to take a hard look at right away, I definitely thought he deserved a look considering how many weak candidates have been nominated thus far. I watched a fair amount of matches from the first half of the 00s of his, many of which were the MPro tags with Togo. Sadly, Top 100 looked further away than before. Not because he was bad by any means. Actually thought he was quite good, especially in stuff like the Trios w/Togo/TAKA vs Fleisch/Curry/Shinzaki (And yes, that is perhaps the most random group of wrestlers ever thrown into a 3 Man team) and the like where he got chances to shine, but usually I felt he got a bit overshadowed by Togo and felt more like a cog in the machine of a good-great match or a "good hand" rather than stealing the show. There's still a ways to go though and my favorites thus far have been his singles matches and that will likely be where his case rests, but that's more speculation at this point. Really liked his matches vs. Tiger Mask 4 in 2002, and it's pretty great that he did a good job of simple things in selling as well as in that match some good timing in his heel spots on TM, will need to see more but I've liked what I saw thus far. Will need some of his bigger matches to deliver I will say. Still have to get to some of the BattlArts stuff and some of his later work (Heard good things about an all DANGAN Yankees tag teaming with Fujita Hayato vs Tanaka/Sugiura that happened two weeks ago that I look forward to) in addition to ECW which was a god point to bring up by Jetlag.

Here's a good place to start in terms of just of a timeline. A pre-ECW match in BJW. for the Jr. Title no less vs Tajiri where he definitely holds his own. Thought this would appeal to some folks here and some who just kinda lump him with other, lesser workers here and I actually think this could easily be counted as a hidden gem, really loved this match a lot and for Hidaka alone, holy crap was he good for a guy that had barely been going a year. Did a lot right though got a little rushed during the final part of the match but still a well above average.

[goc]

I may really look into Ikuto Hidaka. I have really not gotten into most puro I have tried to watch but I do remember that I really liked that NJPW vs. Z-1 feud from the 2000s and Hidaka was a real standout to me there.

[Alan4L]

Super talented guy. Not quite sure he has the output to find his way onto my list though. Too many other guys in the same vein as him that I'd give the nod to.

[Jetlag]

Of all the japanese juniors to be stranded on the second to last page with no replies since 2014, Hidaka is the least deserving. For a long time the man has been the sole good thing about ZERO1, and I keep coming across hidden gem matches involving him. The 2002 tag he has with Tiger Mask IV, Ishii and Yuasa is great and a Japanese indy MOTDC, and he's about the best guy in it. It's also notable that he's been great from the get go since 1997. Doubtful he'd make my Top 100, but there are a lot of indy guys nominated who wish they were 1/10th as cool as him.

[Grimmas]

14 minutes ago, Jetlag said:

Of all the japanese juniors to be stranded on the second to last page with no replies since 2014, Hidaka is the least deserving. For a long time the man has been the sole good thing about ZERO1, and I keep coming across hidden gem matches involving him. The 2002 tag he has with Tiger Mask IV, Ishii and Yuasa is great and a Japanese indy MOTDC, and he's about the best guy in it. It's also notable that he's been great from the get go since 1997. Doubtful he'd make my Top 100, but there are a lot of indy guys nominated who wish they were 1/10th as cool as him.

I doubt Hidaka would make my two 100 male list.

[Clayton Jones]

Hidaka would have to absolutely tank all rounds of viewing I'll do for him to not finish decently on my ballot. One of my top 5 favorite Japanese juniors and excels in a variety of settings. It pains me to not have contributed to this post already but I'll make a point to start on him soon.