Don Arakawa

[Grimmas]

Ma Stump Puller said: 

Don Arakawa

Controversial, but Arakawa deserves, at the very least, a crack at nominations. He's one of the most consistent comedy wrestlers ever, and that's coming from someone who groans at that style in general. Under the comedy work is a pretty technical hand who can almost universally take any act and get them to a decent match: a lot of his (documented) SWS work is getting random NJPW guys who are barely out of the Dojo to presentable (or at times even fairly good) matches. He's the perfect opening guy and remained as such for way, way longer than you would expect. That being said, he's had some particularly fun showings when allowed to get his hair down a little, and his weird out of his depth persona when entering shoot style stuff is very entertaining. 

Don Arakawa vs. The Cobra (NJPW, 1985) 

Don Arakawa vs Daisuke Ikeda (PWFG, 1993) 

Carl Greco & Don Arakawa vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Yuki Ishikawa (Bridge of Dreams, 1995)

Don Arakawa & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Fugo Fugo Yumeji & Kuroge Wagyuta (ZERO-ONE, 2002)

Don Arakawa vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (ZERO-ONE, 2003) 

Don Arakawa vs. Munenori Sawa (Big Mouth Loud, 2006) 

Don Arakawa vs Osamu Kido (Big Mouth Loud, 2006) 

[Jetlag]

He also had a pretty excellent match against Kishin Kawabata of all people on a random NOW show. Other than that, it's a bit surprising how few matches he actually has on tape. For someone who is clearly skilled and respected, you'd expect him to get a vanity title run in some indy promotion or something.

[Ma Stump Puller]

10 hours ago, Jetlag said:

He also had a pretty excellent match against Kishin Kawabata of all people on a random NOW show. Other than that, it's a bit surprising how few matches he actually has on tape. For someone who is clearly skilled and respected, you'd expect him to get a vanity title run in some indy promotion or something.

Got a link? The only match I seen of them against each other was a incredibly rushed showing in SWS.

 

[Robert S]

10 hours ago, Jetlag said:

He also had a pretty excellent match against Kishin Kawabata of all people on a random NOW show. Other than that, it's a bit surprising how few matches he actually has on tape. For someone who is clearly skilled and respected, you'd expect him to get a vanity title run in some indy promotion or something.

Kawabata was a pretty solid guy. He did not get any push at all in NOAH, but he even managed to get something watchable out of post-injury Kentaro Shiga (who was dreadful at that point when not doing straight comedy).

[Ma Stump Puller]

After watching that Kawabata match, I definitely have to say he's edging a place in the top 100. Guy took a green as grass ex-sumo who hadn't even been wrestling for a full year to a very well done sub-15 match that didn't drag, had a great balance of offence and comedy, and got great reactions from the crowd who were initially pretty dry for this. That's incredible talent and something I think even some of the bigger names would have issues with, yet gets done here with no struggle.