Masaaki Mochizuki

[InYourCase]

10 hours ago, Jetlag said:

Watched some Mochizuki today:

https://reverseviperhold.blogspot.com/2021/05/gwe-watching-masaaki-mochizuki.html

Pretty underwhelming. He lost a lot of energy compared to his 90s days. The worst thing is he comes across as an indy guy with a kicker gimmick rather than a karate dude. I was also super annoyed with the Toryumon matches all having pointless limb work and interferences. Doesn't help that Mochizuki doesn't have much charisma. They should've kept the role of evil karate guy for Okamura, who has much more sleazy charme.

Good reviews, but a bit of an odd list to work from. A lot of these matches are bogged down by M2K interference, which was a great storyline but could sometimes hinder match quality, or they are from a period of Mochizuki's career that was before he put it all together. I was actually just talking about Mochizuki on a podcast and how he doesn't really come into his own until around 2002, then from 2005-onwards is great on another level. 

I'd point you to these, assuming you haven't seen them: 

vs. Akira Tozawa

vs. Shun Skywalker

vs. Kzy

Would love to hear your thoughts on those. Hope you enjoy them. 

[Makai Club #1]

I always forget just how much I adore Mochizuki in the ring.I love him regardless of time period - when he was a karateka turned wrestler, when he was the bully douchebag that rode a scooter in Toryumon Japan, when he was an aging veteran. Everything. And I genuinely think that he got better with age and experience. He had arguably his best ever run in his 40s and looks great even now despite being cycled down the card. When I first got into Dragon Gate, I saw this old man in good shape as champion and I was skeptical, at first but Mochizuki totally blew me away when he  had my 2018 MOTY against Kzy (Watch this!). Rewatching his old work always brings great results whether it's in tags or singles matches too. It’s not even a collection of great matches either. There are genuine MOTYCs against the likes of Shingo Takagi, YAMATO, CIMA. I find that he is terrific in the muti-man spectaculars that Dragon Gate always does, like the Cage matches, or the 4 Way Tags between Units. It’s rare that I leave a Mochizuki match with a bad taste in my mouth. Even when against young rookies, Mochizuki always delivers to what is expected. The biggest factor against him is the DG Style which affects everyone if you’re not into it and that’s somewhat disappointing because I genuinely think that he is/was a sensational wrestler. I tend to struggle to place more modern wrestlers in lists like these but Mochizuki will undoubtedly top that set of wrestlers.