Masashi Takeda

[Grimmas]

Richeyedwards said: "Someone primarily known as a deathmatch guy this student of jun kasai, while excellent at that has also had good runs as a straight laced jr heavyweight in both singles and tag in all japan from around 2015-2018. He also in more recent years gained some measure of notoriety among watchers of American indie wrestling where he took part in a couple of bloodsport shows, where he had the opportunity to show off his background of a 16-4 MMA record. His 2017/2018 is a truly exceptional one for a deathmatch wrestler where he held the BJW and Freedoms titles the two main deathmatch titles in Japan at the same time, was BJWs biggest draw, main eventing multiple arena shows and wrestling the likes of Masaya Takahashi, Ryuji Ito, Abdullah Kobayashi, Jun Kasai, Isami Kodaka and Minoru fujita in the process."

[Jetlag]

Pretty good doing worked shootstyle and I'd like to see more of his Style-E material. That said this nu age deathmatch stuff is dreadfully boring and sameish and dead last on the list of wrestling I want to see.

[Boss Rock]

Loved his 2018 run. Primarily a death match wrestler but he's a strong mat worker with a great sense of psychology and escalation. Still haven't seen enough where I'd be comfortable putting him on this kind of list though.

[concrete1992]

As we get closer and closer to VP2010s voting over on Violent People, he starts to stand out as a real candidate for this thing.

The main thing that holds him back is that he doesn't have these clear as day classics it feels as much as a swath of good to great matches across a 10 year span. It is harder to go "Watch these 5 matches". Incredibly strong when it comes to Random Match Theory because any given match can and likely will be a treat.

Ranks highly as an all-time deathmatch wrestler. I know not all styles are created equal so if you think DMs suck, go with God but at this point it has such an impact at multiple scales of pro wrestling over the past 14 years, hard not to give it a look.

Unfortunate that there isn't a full-time shootstyle promotion for him to be an all-time great in two different styles. And the one promotion that employs that type of wrestler regularly seems to be the promotion he is the pillar of the other division.