Seiji Sakaguchi

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Dylan Waco]

I actually loved Sakaguchi on the NJPW set, to the point where I was talking him up as a potential "lost worker" of sorts at the time. The team that put together the footage insisted he was a guy who benefited dramatically from the selection process which I don't doubt, but I still prefer him to someone like Inoki. That said, I also trust their judgment enough where I would need to be pointed to 10-12 strong performances that didn't appear on that project for me to even consider him.

[Parties]

A guy I've been meaning to nominate for a while. Has sporadic matches online, but seems to have been genuinely great from as early as '71 until as late as what, '87 off the NJ set in those two big 5-on-5 matches? Or even '88 doing six-mans with Goto and Saito. One of the best tag workers in company history, esp. for Inoki. Has a really good Andre singles readily available online, then the very good tag against Andre and Tony St. Clair like ten years later.

 

I need to rewatch/see more of him before I can say he fits, but he strikes me as a better version of Baba in a lot of ways, to the point where aside from Baba's prior sports fame I feel like Sakaguchi could have been a much better Baba than Baba ever was.

 

The New Japan set was filled with great "lost workers" (Hoshino, Kimura, Super Strong Machine, Takano, Nogami), but Sakaguchi was right there among them. Strong contender for my list.

[JerryvonKramer]

Bolded thoughts on Sakaguchi in 1971:

 

Time to watch some more matches of one of the all-time greats, Dory Funk Jr!

 

Dory Funk Jr. and Dick Murdoch vs Seiji Sakaguchi and Michiaki Yoshimura (12/12/71)

 

I thought it would be very "topical" to look at this match from 1971 where Dory tags with none-other than WON HoF wannabe Dick Murdoch. We have quite a bit from this 1971 tour. This also gives us a chance to see Dory against guys other than Baba and Jumbo from this timeframe. Even though it's 1971, Dory already looks 40 years old. Of course, he' announced ahead of Murdoch, being the NWA World Champion and all. Yoshimura is announced last. The introductions to this one seem to go on forever, even longer than usual by Japanese standards.

 

Murdoch and Yoshimura to start. Tentative. Murdoch even has a gut on him at this age. Amazing how little some of these guys changed physically in 15+ years. Murdoch applies a head scissors. Into an arm bar now. Yoshimura with an armdrag. And he takes over on the arm. Both guys tag out.

 

It's Dory vs. Sakaguchi now. Immediately Sakaguchi works Dory's arm. Dory goes to a drop toehold into a leglock. "Falling" leglock now multiple times by Dory. I'm not just saying this now, but in these opening exchanges, Dory vs. Sakaguchi has been a hell of a lot more interesting than Murdoch vs Yoshimura. The counters are smoother, the work is more snug, and the level of struggle is better.

 

Murdoch comes in to work on Sakaguchi's arm. Goes into a hammerlock. Clean break by the ropes. Headlock by Sakaguchi. Shoulderblock. Back into the headlock. Snapmare. Tags in Yoshimura. Front facelock. That all went nowhere.

 

Dory back in. Yoshimura goes to a headlock. Spins round with it as Dory tries to escape. Dory tries to bridge out of it but he's block off. Headlock still locked in until Dory breaks it with a shinbreaker. Looks like he's going to do his "falling" leglock now but instead bridges over to stretch that leg. I'm sure this manouvre has a fancy name, but I don't know it, looks painful though. Interesting pinning bridge now by Dory. He's pulling out the fly matwork here!

 

Murdoch back in. Sakaguchi back in. Down to an armbar. Sakaguchi turns it around. Wristlock. Murdoch manages to get an abdominal stretch in. Reversed into a hiptoss. Murodch tags out. Goes for his big butterfly suplex but Sakaguchi blocks it and Dory tags out. Elbow and collar tieup. Sakaguchi into a headlock. Wrenches it. Shoulder block. Flying headscissors by Murdoch -- good agility for a bigger guy. He's goes for a piledriver but Sakaguchi blocks it and reverses, for Dory to come in to intervene. Murdoch goes for the piledriver again, but it's not happening! Dory comes back in with a slap and multiple knee drops. Things are heating up here. Snapmare. Tags in Murdoch for the double-team Ole Anderson kneedrop. Dory's turn to do the kneedrop now. This is some neat tag work by these two. Elbow smash by Murdoch. Dory back in. NOW he hits the butterfly! And that'll do for the first fall. That was a really hot finish to the first fall. Great action and great tag-work by Dory and Murdoch working in tandem. I won't call it a FIP becasuse it ended with a pinfall, but that's essentially what it was, and a really good one.

 

Second fall now and Sakaguchi has lost his temper. Big chop on Dory. Grabs him and shunts him down to the canvas. Bodyslam. Hiptoss. Armdrag. Sleeper! Dory looks like he's fading but Murdoch breaks it. Yoshimura in with a chinlock on Dory now. Irish whip and a backdrop. Dory's bumping quite a bit in this match. He goes for a slam but Yoshimura lands on top of him. Boston crab! Murdoch breaks it with a dropkick and that allows Dory time to tag out. This is turning into a good one.

 

Full nelson by Yoshimura. He's throwing Murdoch around for fun now. Irish whip. Big pump-handle slam. Sakaguchi comes off the top with a stomp. Backbreaker! That gets two. Stomp now and big chops from Sakaguchi. He seems to grab Murdoch by the throat and lift him up! Sakaguchi is a pretty big guy. Mrudoch comes back though and gets a tag. They double team him and Dory hits an uppercut. Big chop exchanges now, and Sakaguchi comes out on top. Dory eats the turnbuckle and a slam. Yoshimua in with a couple of hiptosses. Dory tries to come back with uppercuts and a slam. Goes for his big butterfly suplex ... a hits it! Second one this mathc. Sakaguchi comes in and Dory tries to butterfly him too, but he can't get it. Sakaguchi reverses for the three count and the crowd erupts! That's one fall a piece.

 

Dory and Murdoch strategise in the corner as this third fall starts. Nice touch. Sakaguchi and Dory start out, the former immediately gets an abdominal stretch on and Murdoch has to interfere to break it. Things get a bit scrappy now and neither guy is giving the other anything. Sakaguchi tags out. Dory positions Yoshimura for Murdoch to come off the top with an elbow. Murdoch in and BRAINBUSTER! Piledriver! Sakaguchi comes in to save the pin which really pisses Murdoch off. Nasty stomps from Murdoch on Yoshmimura's head now. Dory comes in and goes for an abdominal stretch which is reversed into a hiptoss. Goes for a backslide, which doesn't come off either and he tags out. Murdoch with a big atomic drop now and Sakaguchi breaks the count again. Dory meanwhile comes in and dumps Yoshimura to the outside and gives him an kneedrop before rolling him back in. German suplex by Dory gets 2. Backbreaker by Dory. Goes for a backdrop but gets a boot in the face and Yoshimura gets the hot tag to Sakaguchi and the crowd is going wild. Murdoch in and he starts kicking Sakaguchi in the stomach and face! Tag out. Dory comes in for the double butterfly suplex but they can't get Sakaguchi up and it doesn't come off. Dory grabs Sakaguchi for more doubleteaming. Murdoch misses an elbow smash and this allows Sakaguchi to hit a massive atomic drop for the 1, 2, 3.

 

Wow, I wasn't expecting this to be anything at all, and this was a really good match. Both Murdoch and Dory were great here, and I also thought the performance of Sakaguchi as a firey younger babyface stood out on the Japanese side. The first and second falls were really good, and sadly I think they blew their loads a bit early here because the third fall almost couldn't live up to it, despite Murdoch hitting some pretty high artillery offense. In terms of our focus on Dory here, I think this is a good match to show how he'd changed from 1971 to the worker we see in the mid-80s. Dory is very agile here, full of neat bridges, quick counters, and he bumps about more. I guess it's not surprising that someone was better when they were 30 than when they were in their mid-40s. Add this one to the 4+ pile.

 

****

 

Dory Funk Jr. vs Seiji Sakaguchi (12/09/71)

 

Well after that, I want to see what Dory and Sakaguchi got out of a singles match. Footage is shaky here and seems to be from original TV rushes because there's a timer in the top left corner.

 

Oh AWESOME Terry comes out with him wearing a long green coat and a hat. Amazingly cool. He looks like something out of a hard-bitten Noir novel. (This might actually be Dory Sr, it's hard to say because his face is obscured, but pretty sure it's Terry) Murdoch is also there.

 

Headlock by Sakaguchi to start. Hiptoss. Into an armbar. Dory tries to jump himself out of it. Arm drag. Sakaguchi doing a good job of controlling this arm. Dory manages to get up for a clean break. Uppercuts but Dory. Immediately goes for the butterfly suplex but can't hit it. Shoves Sakaguchi down instead. Elbow and collar tieup. Headlock take over by Sakaguchi. Dory flips round into a wristlock. Break. Fireman carry take over -- he must have learned that from Jack Brisco! Sakaguchi gives him one back. Hammerlock by Dory. Sakaguchi bridges on his back while in this hammerlock. The Texans in Dory's corner are continuously shouting over. Surfboard by Dory now. Greco Roman knuckle lock now, Sakaguchi turns it around. Eventually he hits a shoulderblock and goes back into the headlock. Up to a vertical base, Dory hits a droptoe hold and goes into a leglock. "Falling" leglock now. But Sakaguchi struggles out of it before the second one and turns it around. Test of strength position now but it's quickly flipped over and they end up with Sakaguchi getting a body scissors on Dory. Some of these mat sequences are really very good. Dory reverses this body scissors into a modified Boston crab. Ends up throwing him away.

 

Pin attempt by Dory ends up with Sakaguchi splitting his legs. If anyone wants to talk about Dory looking like he doesn't care, look at the way he sells the pain and struggle of this move! He punches his way out of this, and they get a clean break. Dory's leg is hurt and he's selling it huge. Sakaguchi goes after it and the crowd are excited. Dory bails. Terry comes over to massage his leg. Back in and Sakaguchi goes back to working this inner thigh muscle -- talk about psychology, this isn't just a leg, it's a specific part of the leg. Dory anages to get a headscissors on. Sakaguchi manages to break it. Headlock by Dorryand he lays in some knees and punches before a snapmare. Knee drop to the back of the neck. Elbow drop. Running knee smash. Uppercut. Sakaguchi comes back with chops. Slugfest now but Sakaguchi gets the better of it. Bodyslam. Crowd has been popped by all this. Another bodyslam. Shoulderblock. Backbreaker! That's a two count. Another bodyslam. Atomic drop. And that's it for the three count!! Dory's been pinned! Wow. I can only guess this is two out of three falls?

 

Tape stops for a bit. Come on, is there a second fall ...

 

Yes! Of course, wouldn't be like Dory to job especially not in 1971. Second fall now then. Action goes ouside. Dory slams Sakaguchi on the table. Snapmares him over the ropes in. Butterfly suplex?? Nope, can't hit it. Sakaguchi has a smile on his face as if to say "no, you're not suplexing me today!" Dory looks non-plussed. Strikes by Sakaguchi now and he goes for a Boston crab. Gets him over! Surely not for the second straight fall?!! No! Dory reverses into a pin, which is reversed. More blows from Sakaguchi now and a slam. Sleeper! Dory reverses into an abdominal stretch, reverses into a hiptoss! Sakaguchi foes for a headlock and Dory hits a back suplex for the second fall.

 

Terry is so ridiculous in his coat and hat. Both guys are getting a lengthy massage. The gaps between these falls are quite long. Dory's had enough and goes to stomp on Sakaguchi. Hits a knee lift and a snapmare. Kneedrop to the back. Uppercut. Goes for a slam but Sakaguchi lands on top of him. He does his choke powerlift again. Dory comes back though and hits a knee drop. Adominal stretch attempt into the hiptoss. Gutwrench suplex by Sakaguchi. Another hiptoss. Bodyslam. Dory knees him straight in the head. Butterfly suplex! And that's do for the three!

 

Well this wasn't as good as the tag match. The long gaps between the falls hurt the momentum of the match and I didn't think it built as excitingly over the three falls. Sakaguchi's offense is very repetetive and seemingly limited: apart from his strikes, he's mostly all hiptosses and bodyslams, which is pretty lame offense. He worked better as both the FIP and the hot tag in the last match -- not as good when having to carry stretches of offense. Dory was fairly spirited here, but by the third fall, it really seemed like they were out of ideas as they went to that abdominal stretch into the hiptoss sequence for maybe the third time. Not a bad outing, but this won't be a match to turn around Dory doubters -- unlike the tag match. I will say though, if you do watch it, look out for his facial expressions selling the chinlock in that first fall.

 

***