Megumi Fujii

[Grimmas]

Reel said: "Fujiii really only has a case for a 100 vote, so this nomination might purely be for me to put her there on my ballot, but here's her case. She has 3 matches, and I'm not sure I'd call any of them great, you could make the argument for the Yoshida match, but in all of them, she looks incredible. Everything is slick, everything is crisp, and she looks like an absolute killer. She would go on to be one the best fighters in women's MMA, but all of these matches take place before the bulk of her run in that sport. Considering her at all is going to be a stretch, but she has a sort of extreme version of Volk Han's case, very few matches, but each one has something special."

[Ma Stump Puller]

Absolutely criminal that this has no discussion. Fujii's three matches (not counting a weird shootish kickboxing bout she did for a wrestling show in 2008) are all pretty good showings. The 2005 IBUKI First to Three Falls match is probably one of the flashiest shoot-style squashes she's ever done and basically puts her over as this unstoppable force who just keeps relentlessly hunting for limbs to snap off. It's a fantastic visual and despite some obvious greeness off her you really get the feeling that she was *the* definitive package. Even with just three matches I'd say she deserves at least a nod to a top 100 spot, but also in acknowledgement that she would've probably easily been lower had she hit that peak a decade earlier.

 

 

[Reel]

I made the nomination, and I stand by what I wrote then, but closer we get to 2026, the less I see her on my ballot. I just don't see how 3 matches that are good, and strong showings, but not mind-blowing, is enough.

I'm willing to project a little for guys like Valentine or Buddy Rogers, where we have limited footage, but we know they had many matches. I'm not willing to say 'well she could have been a great wrestler if she wanted to' is enough to make her one of the 100 greatest wrestlers ever. 

[Ma Stump Puller]

2 hours ago, Reel said:

I made the nomination, and I stand by what I wrote then, but closer we get to 2026, the less I see her on my ballot. I just don't see how 3 matches that are good, and strong showings, but not mind-blowing, is enough.

I'm willing to project a little for guys like Valentine or Buddy Rogers, where we have limited footage, but we know they had many matches. I'm not willing to say 'well she could have been a great wrestler if she wanted to' is enough to make her one of the 100 greatest wrestlers ever. 

Watching her material back, I'm not sure.....the matches aren't obviously these incredible life-changing showings (be it the fairly shaky dance-partners and weird editing for the IBUKI dates) but she's still very good for what is pretty much the bare minimum of experience if even less given her other commitments at the time. Those three matches as you say showcase a fairly impressive range of versatility given each are slightly different in scope. 

 If people give Bockwinkel slack for having entire decades of his career missing to the degree that he's a top 15/20, I think assuming a very high-end prodigy probably having a dozen or so good to great matches is fair. Just me though.

 

 

[Reel]

I think, to some degree, it's fine to see gaps in footage and draw some conclusions based on previous work, or do the opposite and say it's wrong to give credit for footage we don't have. I think those are both acceptable viewpoints. I don't think it's in the spirit of the project to rank wrestlers based on 'what could have been' and in Fujii's case, it's not like we are missing footage. I'm pretty sure we have her entire career on tape. 

 

[Ma Stump Puller]

That's perfectly acceptable as a viewpoint and to be honest, I'd probably agree if it wasn't for how strong Fujii looks in her three matches. You can't *really* see her as having stinkers, at least not without trying hard at least. Idk, I feel like for the material provided there's more than enough to be able to say "yes this person would've probably had some other good matches" at least from what I've seen.

1 hour ago, Reel said:

I think, to some degree, it's fine to see gaps in footage and draw some conclusions based on previous work, or do the opposite and say it's wrong to give credit for footage we don't have. I think those or both acceptable viewpoints. I don't think it's in the spirit of the project to rank wrestlers based on 'what could have been' and in Fujii's case, it's not like we are missing footage. I'm pretty sure we have her entire career on tape. 

 

We don't have her 2008 kickboxing match with Mio Shirai. It's not like that would add anything anyway (it 99% wouldn't from what I'd imagine) but still.

 

[El McKell]

4 hours ago, Ma Stump Puller said:

If people give Bockwinkel slack for having entire decades of his career missing to the degree that he's a top 15/20, I think assuming a very high-end prodigy probably having a dozen or so good to great matches is fair. Just me though.

I think with Bockwinkel we don't have to give any credit whatsoever to him for the earlier parts of his career we're missing because with just what we do have is someone being one of the best performers of the 1980s and that's worth a heck of a lot of credit for this project, I can pretend that his career starts in 1980 and he's done enough to make my top 50 easily. When making this comparison I think it's worth thinking about that if all we had of Bock was his best single performance (the Hennig match from 21st November 1986) we'd have more ring time of Bockwinkel wrestling than Megumi Fujii worked in her whole career.

[ohtani's jacket]

Not for nothing, but if you like Megumi Fuji, her MMA career is worth checking out. 

[Mr JMML]

She has a case for women's MMA GOAT.

[fxnj]

Watching Lorefice's excellent review of Fujii/Yoshida got me interested in rewatching the match alongside watching Fujii's other matches for the first time. I feel like she has a stronger case than is being presented. It certainly doesn't hurt that I have her debut as a likely top 3 match in a loaded year and the other tags at around ****, but I'd argue her case is strongest in the uniqueness of her work. The incredible technique and speed of her transitions is almost like a different species from any other grappler in wrestling. Her work really just gets better the more you rewatch and rewind for all the little details you pick up. This absolutely beautiful ankle sweep almost demands to be looked at frame-by-frame to appreciate the incredible speed involved. Top tier Han and Tamura matches are kind of similar, but there's also a pro-style leaning to her work that you don't get with their stuff. Fujii's work is less "let's build a pro wrestling match around legit techniques" and more "let's imagine pro wrestling as normally presented is a shoot and let's see what happens if you plop a high level BJJ practitioner into that world."