Kotaro Suzuki

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[GOTNW]

I like Kotaro but.............seriously? I really don't see how he's list-worthy if the list isn't focused specifically on japanese juniors.

[KB8]

I liked him enough as a poor-man's SUWA a few years back ('09-ish, I think), but there isn't a ton else. Granted, I haven't watched him in a good long while and junior heavyweights don't work a style I really want TO watch, but yeah.

[TheBean]

Definitely want to share some recommendations since Kotaro is great junior wrestler and nothing substantial has been said. I haven't seen much of him recently but I will update this sporadically. There's quality stuff people are missing.

• Takuma Sano vs Mushiking Terry (Suzuki) (NOAH 11/05/05): What started out as just a fun match turned into something I would strongly recommend checking out. There was a neat story as it appeared Mushiking has Sano's rolling solebutt to the gut scouted. He's dodging it at every attempt. This is really smart because it has been shown to be equal to Misawa's elbow strike or Kobashi's chop. Not only strong, it is unpredictable. Sano is the master of this move along with the top rope double stomp. In combination, it usually spells the beginning of the end for his opponents.Terry (Suzuki) uses speed and craftiness against the the veteran. Smartly he works on weakening Takuma's legs with a variety of holds. This plan looks really good in pulling the upset. Sano's not out of it completely but, I'm buying a Mushiking win. It doesn't matter how much the kids are yelling for their superhero. He can only dodge that kick so many times. Really good match and two masked gimmicks in one year for Kotaro

• Kotaro Suzuki vs El Generico (wXw 16 Carat Gold 2011 - Night 1): This is a pretty high profile match for 2011. It's like an unofficial Best of the Super Jrs. match. It had lots of good action that kept the excitement and drama going. Who would win? Generico is a mega star in indy wrestling and Kotaro is GHC Jr. champ...every nearfall felt like the one that would do it. They both have so many tricks in the bag so, the end was always in doubt. Great match. Recommend it

• Shiozaki, Suzuki & Aoki vs Otani, Hidaka & Hashimoto - (NOAH 05/09/12) - I loved this match. Korakuen hall 6 man tag magic here with every pairing offering something interesting or outright exciting. The big story is young Hashimoto being able to hang in there with Noah top dogs especially Shiozaki. Otani keeping Go in check was enjoyable as all hell since Shinjiro looks like someone's buff dad. I think what made this great beyond the actual talent was the pacing. It was around 20 minutes and built up steam little by little until at the end, the excitement was at a fever pitch. Never did they over do it or go down a road narrative wise only to abandon it. In fact the story finished what it began with twists and turns along the way. I think this was a classic 6 man tag. Not necessarily a Suzuki focused match yet I Highly Recommend it!

• Kotaro Suzuki, Yoshinari Ogawa & YO-HEY vs Daisuke Harada, HAYATA & Tadasuke (01/06/19 NOAH): This is Korakuen Hall six man action and damn it is very good! NOAH still knows how to do this 17 minutes of excitement. This had heat and the tandem moves most notable Ogawa and Kotaro (Misawa's other protege besides Marufuji) doing Untouchables moves - Oh man! so cool to see 20 years later! 

[TheBean]

More Kotaro recommendations!

• KENTA & Takuma Sano vs Jun Akiyama & Kotaro Suzuki (07/26/02): Nice junior offense to open up with! I don't know if this is the first instance of surly KENTA vs veterans but it's a damn good one. Akiyama is so good in knowing when to no sell and when to sell here...he's probably the best of the big guys from AJPW in working with younger guys. Sano doesn't make a giant impression here because he knows that's not what the match is about. He does his job well in neutralizing Akiyama and,putting the hurt on he & Suzuki when he needs to. This is a great tag match. We really get to see the KENTA we come to know here both in attitude and move set. Suzuki really shined here as well.

• Kotaro Suzuki, Mitsuharu Misawa, Takuma Sano & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akira Taue, Daisuke Ikeda, Masashi Aoyagi & Takashi Sugiura (10/19/02): Oh man this was a lot of fun! The last few minutes were especially good. Not top tier but there's some really exciting sequences that had me cheering. I liked the early focus on Aoyagi and by the end everyone was going off. I really dug this one.

• KENTA & Kotaro Suzuki vs Great Takeru & Kappa Kozou (02/08/03): Was going to skip this since I'd never heard of the IWA Japan team. But then I thought - I'm going to end up watching the whole event (mostly) so I should just check it out. So glad I did! Its shown in full as it features the home NOAH team and frankly it is a great opening bout! Both teams were smooth and exciting which surprised me. Perhaps it's a case of low expectations but I thought the teams gelled well enough that the IWA-J team would be invited back for under card jobs at the very least. Not thinking they were though...

[TheBean]

• Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Aoki vs Naomichi Marufuji & Taiji Ishimori (NOAH 05/13/12): Great match but not without its faults. The hyper pace is so untenable and renders so many cool moments forgettable. They never let anything sink in. And that can work if you have a shorter match of like 10-15 minutes but they went double that. It's too much. Still there were so many cool moments that I guess they accumulated into something special. Mind you, others might absolutely love this kind of match so that's why I'm recommending it.

• Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Aoki vs Marvin & Super Crazy - (NOAH 07/22/12): THIS is the definitive version of this match-up! Under 20 minutes, all fireworks still but the slimmed down version of their March match. They wrestled it as Aoki vs Crazy in the first half and then Marvin vs Kotaro in the second. Of course there were double teams and break -ups but the legal guys really broke down like that. I respect their decision to do this. It made for a much better match.  Great fireworks match!

• Minoru Tanaka, Koji Kanemoto & Hiroshi Yamato vs Atsushi Aoki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki (AJPW 04/29/13) : Thought maybe I saw this but, no! So this was from the 2013 Champion Carnival final night. First things first, kudos to the dude who gave Aoki the double birds right in his field of vision while stomping his opponent. Then kudos to Aoki for getting up in said dudes face Hahaha! That's was hilarious! All that said, this was SICK! The top juniors in the company in one ring, all with beef - this was top shelf stuff. It was so aggressive yet intricate that nothing came off as overly contrived. It just felt like rivals going to battle. It made me realize how much I missed Kotaro and Kanemaru in 2014. Aoki is so much better with Kotaro than Sato and this match is proof (nothing against Sato). But Minoru, Kanemoto and Yamato were just as fantastic here. The feud of Burning juniors vs Stack of Arms/Junior Stars is the best of the year. Classic junior 6 man match.

• Atsushi Aoki & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Keisuke Ishii & Shigehiro Irie (AJPW 10/27/13) - Nice lead in video showing both teams training and developing new tag moves. The DDT team does a 2 man Go To Sleep but uses one guy's head instead of a knee. Then Burning uses a combination move that culminates in a back heel & running elbow strike that compresses the opponents head - very MCMG style. Anyhow this was a great match that is scratching at the door of a near classic. Like ****+ rating. Just fast action packed wrestling. Like MCMG or The Briscoes they are just putting on excellent matches regardless of familiarity with their opponents. 

• Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kota Ibushi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki (AJPW 08/31/13):  This was a great match. Kota Ibushi was the odd man out as I don't think there's much history with him & the others. Stylistically I don't think he fit as well. He is very good at what he does but thankfully he's not in there a bunch. The heart of the match is Burning vs Nakajima especially Kotaro vs Nakajima. Kotaro was on fire here and Nakajima wasn't far behind. Kanemaru brought his A game as well but is much subtle (like a Shiro Koshinaka or even Christopher Daniels) so you just expect him to be flawless and keep moving the story/match along. That said, this was the match I'd hoped for with a very different finish that was fantastic. I'd probably put this at **** or so.

• Kento Miyahara & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (AJPW 07/27/14): Very fast paced match with a purpose. Everything looked great here with the focus on Akiyama putting Miyahara in his place. Great under 10 minute match!