Rikidozan

[Dylan Waco]

Discuss Here.

[Loss]

I'm glad we were able to start the topic!

 

Rikidozan is someone who when I looked over who was nominated was the most glaring omission. We have more of his career on tape than you may think, including a half dozen or so long, complete matches that reflect well on him and a couple dozen JIP or extended clipped matches and that includes singles, tags and six-mans against the premiere workers of his era. I think that's plenty to figure out where he ranks as a worker.

 

As for the key matches:

 

Rikidozan vs Lou Thesz (10/07/57)

Rikidozan vs Lou Thesz (10/13/57)

Rikidozan vs Fred Blassie (03/28/62) *This was in LA if you want to see him tested in a different setting*

Rikidozan vs Fred Blassie (04/23/62)

Rikidozan vs The Destroyer (12/02/63)

 

I won't lie and say that being the Godfather of Japanese wrestling isn't playing into my fondness of him, but I also think it's more than his standing as a historical figure. All of those matches are ones I'd go to bat for, and I also like a lot of the extended clips against guys like Masahiko Kimura and Pat O'Connor.

 

To me, he comes across as the best possible version of that super charismatic babyface like a Dusty, JYD, Duggan or Hogan. I don't think there's quite enough footage to say he's definitively better, but anyone who plans on ranking those guys will probably enjoy Rikidozan.

[MoS]

Not arguing this nomination, but if we have one for Rikidozan, we have to have one for Santo Sr. as well, right, because arguably no wrestler has been more beloved and a bigger folk hero than Santo?

 

Unless he has already been nominated; in that case, sorry.

[Jingus]

Difference is: like Loss said, we've got a relative shitload of Rikidozan on tape. Looking around, I couldn't find even one complete match for Santo, it seems like all we've got is a little bit of heavily-clipped footage which was edited into his movies. It's nowhere near enough to really get a handle on how good he was.

 

As for Rikidozan himself: I dunno, he struck me as a slower and more basic version of Bruno, lots of sorta aimless and repetitive brawling. It certainly worked and he knew exactly how to play his audience, but it's the sort of thing I watch more out of historical interest than because I'm really entertained by it.

[Loss]

Not arguing this nomination, but if we have one for Rikidozan, we have to have one for Santo Sr. as well, right, because arguably no wrestler has been more beloved and a bigger folk hero than Santo?

 

Unless he has already been nominated; in that case, sorry.

 

Do we have a lot of Santo matches on tape? We do for Rikidozan.

[WingedEagle]

Playlist created. Should get to it by 2018.

[MoS]

I had assumed that since Santo was active into his 60s, we did have a respectable amount of footage, even if a lot of it was post-prime. My mistake.

[Jingus]

I guess we can chalk it up to societal differences, but Mexican wrestling seems to have done a not-so-great job of preserving its older video tapes of pre-80s wrestling as opposed to their Japanese or American brethren.

[Loss]

It likely *exists* but it's not in circulation.

[elliott]

Where do people stand on Rikidozan? Its been a while since I've watched or thought about him. 

[club]

I've spent some of my New Years day watching Rikidozan matches with my mother-in-law, who lived through the era. We watched Kimura, Ortega and the Thesz count-out. He's a charismatic, kind, mega-babyface. Work-wise he's basic but does exactly what he needs to do for his crowd: standing tall taking no shit from anyone, Lou Thesz be damned. Looking at what he accomplished it's hard to fault him. In terms of a project like this though, he's more interesting from an anthropological perspective than an in-ring one.

[KinchStalker]

Agreed.

As a side note, the first-gen puro guy with the best reputation as a worker is Michiaki Yoshimura. He's solid in what I've seen, but we just don't have that much. The story goes that he was so good as a FIP that his daughter got bullied at school for how weak he was.

[Jetlag]

Recently came across this match, which is apparently new.

Thought this was pretty awesome. Rikidozan is clearly the predecessor to Tenryu here beating the dogshit out of Blassie, who is a complete ghoul. Rikidozan just hammering away at Blassie with fists and those damned chops is everything a legendary folk hero needs to be. I also dug those running punt kicks he did. At some point Blassie puts a headscissor on Rikidozan as if they were going to catch a breath but instead Rikidozan breaks out by stomping on Blassies face. It goes by pretty fast for such a long match and the intensity is tremendous. Rikidozan takes a pretty huge bump into the buckle and comes up bleeding. Rikidozan with blood in his eye trying to fend of the vampire coming at him was ridiculously great. Admittedly they kind of overdo the lowblow as Blassie lowblows Rikidozan like 5 or 6 times in the match but that is a minor complaint. The LA territory looks awesome with the announcer doing a fantastic job commentating. Wish there was more footage from that time period.

I'll have to rewatch the first Blassie match but this may be Rikidozans best match. I could watch Blassie biting and getting beaten around the ring all day.

[PeteF3]

That match has been out for awhile. It's mostly significant for being one of the only full matches we have now with commentary by legendary L.A. announcer Dick Lane.