Hideki Suzuki

[Grimmas]

DylanZero said: "

One of the brightest spots to ever come from IGF, Hideki's career has spanned from wrestling on BattlArts' last show to BJW champion to now NXT, I absolutely love his work and think he's one of the last to really "get" bridging the gap between real and worked wrestling. We're seeing a bit of a Revival of his style in GLEAT and sadly it's after he was signed to the WWE and gone from the country. That said his matches against a variety of opponents I enjoy not just the way he wrestles and his style but the fact that he makes everything feel earned, a rare trait for a modern wrestler in a pretty cooperative age. I also enjoy his slight differences to his approach depending on the style of his opponent. He still is doing his style but will change how he utilizes it against different opponents from big guys like Strong BJ, to guys not positioned on his level like Nomura & Kamitani to a technical guy like Thatcher to a striker like Nakajima he adjusts well against his different opponents. He just debut as I'm writing this in NXT and on paper he would have a fairly low ceiling in modern WWE but with the in-ring excitement of his virtual mirror Timothy Thatcher I can see a future where he adds to his case, which for me would put him over the top. I encourage everyone to check out his best work,

including these matches:

vs. Yuji Okabayashi - 5.5.2017 - BJW

vs. Timothy Thatcher - 4.4.2019 - Josh Barnett's Bloodsport

vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima - 2.16.2020 - Pro Wrestling NOAH"

[Jmare007]

I love Hideki, when he is on he makes every move matter and forces his opponent to struggle for control that is so heavily missed in today's wrestling. He can have a goofy side too (him teaming up with Abby Jr and trying to be "more hardcore" will forever blow my mind ) but of course, his strengths are being an stoic wrestling machine that will turn you into a pretzel just like Billy Robinson taught him how to do.

 

My biggest problem with Hideki's case is how inconsistent he is and how reliant on good chemistry and big moments he is. You are not gonna find a lot of even "good" matches from him when he's not in a big match or against something he deems worthy of wrestling and that's a huge flaw in my book. I mean, he was supposed to make Daichi Hashimoto look great and crown him as the next big champ for Big Japan and Suzuki made him look like shit every cotdamn he was in the ring with him 1 on 1 (on tags it's was vastly different). Granted, Daichi is an average/above average wrestler and one could argue he shouldn't be anyone's main champion but shit, everyone else on BJW has at least one good match against him and Hideki refused to do it every single time. There's also tag matches when he's a complete ghost and others when he makes the match feel legitimately special, he has a very weird on/off swtich. 

But again, when it's on...boy he really is one of the best out there and a special talent. Shoutout to his series of matches with Sekimoto and his interactions with Nomura, fucking gold every damn time.

I hope he gets a couple of chances to shine in NXT. He's a bottom 20 candidate for me but we'll see how I feel about it in 5 more years.

[Reel]

He's a guy who has, in certain circles, a reputation as being one of the best wrestlers in the world, and I think if you find yourself in those circles and you check out a Suzuki match, you'll more than likely be disappointed. If for whatever reason you're really invested in Billy Robinson and Karl Gotch's vision of wrestling being the be-all-end-all of wrestling, then he's your dude. But, if you're not, then it's mostly just generally kind of boring. There's a lot of hand fighting early in matches that really doesn't work for me and rarely has much of a purpose, a lot of working of holds that isn't all that compelling to me, and just generally not a lot to sink your teeth into.

There is some good stuff, like I think all 3 of the nominated matches are good, but his hit rate is infinitesimal in my view. 

[Rah]

What would be the must-see matches before 2017? 9 years is a long time to get going.

[Jetlag]

His best match happened in 2010:

 

He also had a Barnett match that people really liked. I don't recall him doing much of note in IGF or his other BattlARTS matches, although some of the matches, like him vs Katsuhisa Fujii, look fun. Suzuki never really set my world on fire, but I guess he has his place as one of the few decent workers to come out of Japan in the 2000s.

[concrete1992]

Feels like someone I would have been 100x more sympathetic to the case before they decided to retire in Florida.

[Boss Rock]

I like Hideki a lot, but he's a weird candidate because of his relatively low volume. Per Cagematch, he has less than 500 matches in a 13 year career. Not to say volume is the end-all be-all as Tamura and Han get a lot of love despite having short careers. But with Suzuki you're only gonna get a couple singles matches per year. But when he's on, by God he's on. His charisma and presence is just so magnetic. When he was in BJW he personified the "final boss" archetype better than anyone. You have this guy who looks like he could be a business man or lawyer, but you know he's just a flip of the switch away from turning into an absolute killer who's not above telling the crowd to go fuck themselves.

Right now I lean no, but 5 years is a long time and his best stuff is fantastic.

[Ma Stump Puller]

His NOAH stint for what it's worth is fairly enjoyable. The Funaki match he had this year in particular alongside the Nakajima stuff was fantastic and he's really worked as a UWF-throwback in tags and the like. It's not going to swing you towards him being a huge star or anything but it's a extra something towards his history of ring quality.

 

[Jetlag]

God no, that Funaki match was horrible. I'm starting to understand why people think shootstyle is garbage when matches like that are being pimped. I blame Funaki who is such a paycheck collector at this point but Suzuki wasn't exactly pushing him either.

 

On the other hand, I watched his match against Keita Yano from this year. It was better, but far from touching on greatness. I was surprised he gave Keita a lot in that. Hideki clearly has some talent in him, but mostly falls short of producing classics. I've noticed he's pretty much a pure Billy Robinson tribute wrestler at this point and it seems to limit him since he always just busts out the spots. He's pretty good with them but other workers get so much more out of doing a 70s act.