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...