Tadao Yasuda

[Grimmas]

GOTNW said: "The alleged „worst IWGP champion in history“,  Yasuda is another wrestler I was supposed to dislike but then I actually watched his matches and it turned out he was quite good. Coward shooter is one of the more unique gimmicks you're gonna find in wrestling, but even before then he knew how to use his strong points like clinching and sumo offence to create meaningful focal points around which to build matches."

[Jedaum]

I love Yasuda, he will be nowhere near my list but i think he is underrated. His trilogy of IWGP title matches with Yuji Nagata are must watch and his coward shooter gimmick is great.

Recommended matches:

vs Yuji Nagata 16/02/2002

vs Yuji Nagata 05/04/2002

vs Yuji Nagata 12/08/2003

vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan G1 Climax 1997

vs Satoshi Kojima G1 Climax 1998

vs Shinsuke Nakamura G1 Climax 2003

 

[WingedEagle]

Just wanted to add that Yasuda vs. Nagata is a series worth checking out whether or not you're interested in either as a GWE candidate.  

[Ma Stump Puller]

Recently seen this guy in a Fujita tag in 1998, thought he looked pretty damn good for someone his size. Kinda reminded me of a far worse Akira Taue when it came to "lanky big lad doing shit you wouldn't expect" antics, and said impression only got stronger when I seen him in UWF just belly flopping all over a rookie Sakuraba. Really should do a deep-dive of him in the future because he seems like a fascinating character despite the over-push he got post Le Banner win.

 

[Ma Stump Puller]

Ok so I've sat down and watched a fair chunk of his stuff, mostly from his 2000's stint given that's where he gets most coverage (as opposed to his 90's days where he was a lot more occasional for televised appearances, and not many were worth really checking out) much like with Nishimura, I wanna record my thoughts on here just to see how a GWE case could potentially look like.

1. Yasuda most definitely is not someone who can go out and have a great match with everyone: he's not the wrestler for that, partly because he's not really someone who ever became "great" when it came to working against the norm, getting better than expected showings, etc. His workrate is steady for pretty much all of his career bar post-2007 where a alleged suicide attempt and general wear and tear really take a lot out of him to the point where he's barely working afterwards outside of obscure indies that weren't taped. You have to accept early on that there's a lot of matches that just aren't good or are flat-out bad because of the conditions, the work involved, or just general screwy stuff going on. 

2. While the above is the case, Yasuda is also very good when it comes to the entertainment factor of putting on matches: he's solid at working either a undercard babyface battling the odds and getting the crowd hugely behind him, or as a cowardly heel who has to cheat with shtick to get his own way. In both roles he is good at emoting himself in the ring, and you always know how he's feeling, if that makes any sense. Whatever role he needs to put on Yasuda can do so fairly effectively, even more complex stuff like a comedic face/heel struggling to make ends meet (HUSTLE) or a tweener role where he does heelish stuff but never goes overtly over the top and still has fan support (G1 2001). He's pretty versatile when it comes to that end. 

3. Heel Yasuda kinda has that Triple H quality in that he can dominate a match in a lot of places, but if you look back it never really feels as such because he's also very good at feeding for the babyface and just making them look great, either be his bug-eyed facial expressions or his really awesome big guy bumps for German suplexes and the like. Examples like his mini-series with a young Tanahashi or his upset against Nakamura show a distinct quality when it comes to really making the babyfaces look like killers, especially when it comes to the big momentum swings of a match.  

4. Yasuda does have a number of great singles showings, but for me his tags are also a lot of fun, debatably even better in places. Early Yasuda excels as a lumpy ex-sumo who can move surprisingly well, can shift a match dynamic with big bumping on his side or just taking over with his big-man style, and throw in some crowd-popping moments to really get them loud for any finishing stretch. Heel Makai Club era Yasuda changes up to be this annoying dickhead who relies on his goons to do the dirty work, usually picking up their scraps or interfering to turn the tide. Not only does he get amazing heat, but he's also awesome when the tides turn and his antics finally catch up with him. Much like Triple H again, he stacks the deck so high that everyone is begging for it to get knocked over, and he's super solid when it comes to putting over that "oh shit I'm losing" side of things. Small stuff like eating shit from Nagata or trying to bully Liger with his size only to stooge and sell hard really sell that aspect.

I would say overall that I definitely think Yasuda could fit on a top 100. Not from a "workrate" (whatever that means these days) aspect, but from a overall package, versatility and just knowing how to play roles super solid aspect of wrestling, he is fit for purpose. Maybe that'll change as I go though more Makai Club stuff but so far, pretty confident in what I'm thinking.

 

 

[Ma Stump Puller]

The Yasuda Deep Dive has (almost) finished! I'll have a write-up to stick up soon, in the meantime enjoy this extended recommendation list:

vs Hiroshi Hase 06/11/1994

vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan 01/08/1997

w/ Shinya Hashimoto vs Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima 17/09/1997

vs Satoshi Kojima 01/08/1998

W/ Takashi Iizuka vs Kazuo Yamazaki & Osamu Nishimura 08/08/1998

vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan 09/08/2000

Basically all of his G1 2001 run, awesome stuff

vs Yuji Nagata 16/02/2002

W/ Yutaka Yoshie vs Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kensuke Sasaki 24/03/2002

vs Yuji Nagata 05/04/2002

vs Tatsumi Fujinami 19/07/2002

W/ Yutaka Yoshie vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Shiro Koshinaka 20/07/2002

W/ Makai #1, Makai #2, Ryushi Yanagisawa vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata & Yutaka Yoshie 17/09/2002

W/Kazunari Murakami vs Michiyoshi Ohara & Shinsuke Nakamura 04/01/2003

vs Yuji Nagata 12/08/2003

vs Shinsuke Nakamura 14/08/2003

W/ Makai #1, Ryota Chikuzen vs Jinsei Shinzaki, Jushin Thunder Liger & Osamu Nishimura 03/11/2003

W/ Kazunari Murakami vs Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yutaka Yoshie 12/03/2004

vs Tadao Omori 10/10/2005

vs Naoya Ogawa 20/12/2007

vs Josh Barrett 29/06/2007

W/ Masahiro Chono vs. Shinjiro Otani & Takao Omori 29/04/2008

W/Shinjiro Otani vs. Minoru Suzuki & Yoshihiro Takayama 04/02/2011