Tatsuhito Takaiwa

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[El-P]

Boum, powerbomb, concussion.

 

From what I remember, easily the lesser worker of the pushed NJ junior from the late 90's (not including Kendo Kashin of course). No idea what I would think about his work today though.

[elliott]

No.

 

I will say that in the late 90s and early 00s I liked him a lot as a bomb throwing junior. He was a lot of fun as the jacked up little guy killing people with powerbombs, death vallery drivers and lariats. He definitely stood out for me amongst the NJ Juniors for being something different. But I don't think I ever actually saw him in a really great match. But I always thought if he could ever put it all together his style could have made for some really terrific juniors matches. I have no idea if that ever ended up happening but considering how long it took him to get nominated, I kinda doubt it did.

[Jetlag]

I recall reading somewhere Kikuchi vs. Takaiwa was a junior MOTDC, but that was more about Kikuchi.

 

Also surely Kashin is better than Takaiwa? I mean that guy atleast sold.

[Timbo Slice]

Nah. He DID look like a gigantic baby at times, though. Seriously, his head was huge.

[GOTNW]

Takaiwa's in for me. I love to watch him beat people up way too much to exclude him. I think his sense of timing is incredible, which is why I can totally but into his matches whenever they are nearfall heavy, and in watching Ohtani themed stuff I'd actually look forward to him tagging in a lot more than I would say Masato Tanaka, even if I don't see myself making an argument Takaiwa is better in general. The idea he doesn't sell at all is ridiculous and simply factuay untrue. Sure, he'd do it occasionally and especially in bigger matches, but he way better at organically working them into matches than say......Shibata, Sekimoto,(name a modern puro worker). I think it's totally reasonae to blame him for excess in nearfalls and big moves but it's not something that bothers me one bit when watching his matches.

[GOTNW]

To continue on the "Takaiwa doesn't sell" talking point, I watched Ohtani/Takaiwa vs Misawa/Kotaro Suzuki from NOAH; 2005 somewhat recently and what stood out to me the most was how amusing Takaiwa's selling of Misawa's elbows was, it was almost borderline stooging. Sure-everyone sold Misawa's elbows like a big deal, but the lengths Takaiwa went to were something special.

[Ma Stump Puller]

Kashin is WAY more varied and has a ton more to work with than Takaiwa for me, namely because Takaiwa never changed or adapted, kept doing the same stuff over and over and over again. I could never handle a deep-dive of the guy because it would all be the same bomb-sequences or recklessness. There's times where it really works and I enjoy his presence in matches, but a lot of the time it's just rethreads of stuff he did in the 90's but slower and less explosive. The NOAH stuff is probably the last time he felt refreshing and if he's not doing his usual bomb-spamming then he struggles to show off much else outside of that.

His Black Tiger stuff sucks ass. Idk what happens but he just loses all ring quality he has left and becomes a generic brawling heel that sits around and sucks the energy out of any match he's in with either stalling or very basic wrestling; maybe you might get a Death Valley Driver near the end but it'll always be kicked out so it doesn't matter either way. I get having him on a list like this but his flaws are incredibly obvious and get worse over time.