Mitsuhiro Matsunaga

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[El-P]

Awful for most his career, and tried to made up for it by being insane. But still ended up looking awful most of the time. I think Shoji Nakamaki has better performances.

 

He's probably a much better cook.

[Dylan Waco]

I've been watching a lot of Japanese sleaze/death match feds lately and was surprised by how much I enjoyed Matsunaga. As a martial arts guy with poor technique who relies on charisma to make his matches exciting he's much better than Takada, as his poor technique takes the form of recklessness where you think anything can happen at any moment. Of course it is possible (probable even) that he was largely being carried by people like Goto and Onita, but I still enjoyed a lot of that stuff. I imagine El-P is right and that he was terrible for many years, though the next memory I have of him is the crazy/infamous stuff from 99/00ish which I really enjoy to one degree or another. Probably not enough to make a list, but I'm interested to see if I'm a complete outlier for enjoying him, or if others were into his act.

[Jetlag]

He was definitely not awful. In fact, I don't ever recall seeing a bad Matsunaga performance. Yes, he lost mobility after his knee injury, but a karate guy throwing kicks is always more exciting than your standard garbage brawler. I've also grown fond of his early career karateka vs. pro wrestler stuff. He wouldn't make a top 100, but I've yet to see any evidence of him being an awful worker.

[HeadCheese]

Interested to watch more of him but, be he feels he'll make my list. He will seems likely to make my list. His wrestling arc seems interesting too a karate guy. Liked Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto vs. Jerry Blayman & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga in a barbed wire match.

Over the next ten years he becomes less karate more bitter and more deathmatchy. He turns to he tries to return the favor becoming the deathmatch wrestler to try to take mma inspired wrestlers out of their depths in Battlarrts. He has one a match that will proabably make my GWE vs. Alexander Otsuka (recommend watching the full show version for promos and  more conrext).

He is also in the great and one of the greatest visual matches ever in the fire car match that is Jun Kasai & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs. Nick Gage & Zandig.

If still haven't watched the Stop The Matsunaga story yet and he more. If he delivers like he has so far he'll make my list.

 

 

[Ma Stump Puller]

A decent shindie hardcore brawler of the time, though people expecting the flash and showmanship of Onita from him will be epically disappointed. Matsunaga is a lot more brutal, more of a classical type where brawling and blood are the main game. He's decent at the brawling part (his kicks are solid before he busted them completely) and he gets bloody at will. 

I actually love his post-2000s appearances because of how unhinged they are. Here's a scrubby has-been gone mad from years of pain and disappointment pulling out a dozen knifes from his knee braces or putting people in SAW-type contraptions just for the hell of it. Sure he's sloppy, but who cares? You're not watching this stuff for clean technical masterclasses, you're watching it to watch a old fella do some painful shit that looks cool only for the people not doing it. If you have a taste for the bonkers, I would implore putting in the effort to find his performances from around that time. 

Would he get on a top 100? Probably not, but he's still quite entertaining nonetheless. 

 

 

[HeadCheese]

Put, this on my GWE list. Tarzan Goto rules too!