Osamu Nishimura: Best of/Primer (W/ Gordy List!)

[Ma Stump Puller]

Introduction

Osamu Nishimura is one of my favourite wrestlers, but his coverage outside of his greatest hits is immensely lacking. I really wanted to get this made as a way to show off the vast versatility of the guy, while also being able to showcase his strengths and weaknesses in a pretty accurate manner. For the sake of changing things up I also wanted to cover him using a Gordy List, because why not? I'm going to go though essentially all of the questions to really discuss how he rules, as well as throw out some match suggestions. 

 

"1. What kind of candidate is this wrestler (Peak vs Longevity,Peak+ Longevity, Big Match Wrestler, Week to Week Performer etc) and what range would you consider ranking them?"

 

I think Nishimura fits a good few of these and isn't easily squished into any single one of them. He can do BIG match wrestling with the best of his time, his longevity is insane (basically the same quality of matches from 1998 to now) and his consistency week to week is high-standard. Nishimura is someone who could easily work with anything on the table and make the best out of it, even if it's complete rubbish. 

"2. What is your elevator pitch for this wrestler to be a Top 100 Wrestler? (Sum up their case in a short paragraph)."

 

Osamu Nishimura can get a extended surfboard spot over in big workrate main event showings. He is capable of getting a audience to max capacity volume with roll-ups and basic holds and submissions. He's one of the greatest carriers in terms of workrate and has a insane backlog of wrestlers that have had some of their best showings against him. Simply put, he's a master workhorse that doesn't even need to work that hard ultimately to get anything over because he's just that good at pacing simple work brilliantly, but if he has to make you look good then he's more than capable of doing so.

"3. Were they ever the best wrestler in the world? Were they ever the best wrestler in their country? Were they ever the best wrestler in their promotion? Who were some of their competitors for the best wrestler in the world, country, and promotion?"

 

I would say no: even in his peak years (early to mid 2000's) Nishimura WAS one of the best workers in NJPW, but he wasn't the best as a whole. Worldwide he'd be probably top 10 at his peak, which isn't a bad thing obviously but still. Guys like Nagata itch him out quality-wise, guys like Takayama, Tenryu and Muto also had better peak years at the time. I don't think Nishimura ever was on their level but he got pretty damn close, especially in 2002 where he was having multiple amazing showcases: Iizuka, Shiga, Bas, Nagata, Takayama, Akiyama, Tenzan, Nakanishi.....like this is all from the same year, and it's just the best matches from there, at times back to back in G1 showings. He isn't the peak best at any point in my opinion, but his consistency for those years is unmatched. 

"4. How many years were they a top worker (top worker being a candidate for top 10 wrestler in the world)? 

 

Nishimura can be easily considered a top 10 wrestler up until the late 2000's. Every year you have him having good reliable showings that easily stick him alongside the best of the best. He only truly starts to fall off here when he leaves AJPW to go do Muga bookings, and that's ONLY because so little of that got onto tape (the Fujinami/Saito/Kawada showings are all respectfully quite damn solid to be fair) when he got back he pretty much went right back to having bangers. He falls off completely when AJPW keep sticking him in shitty vet 6-man showings with guys like Great Kabuki or Dory Funk Jr, who obviously can't really give much on their end or he's forced to tag with people like Kenzo Suzuki, who needless to say isn't very good. His part-time status due to his political campaigning also harms his placing given he wasn't wrestling much at all during those times.

"5. Were they a great worker before their prime? Were they a great worker after their prime? How great were they (were they a best in the world, country, promotion candidate while before their prime/after their prime)"

 

This is the sticker for ranking the guy: Nishimura's earlier days were.....ehhh. He's a pretty weird Young Lion in that his fundamentals are fine, but he is kinda forced to be a Jr heavyweight so they have him do these terrible moonsaults and other flippy stuff that he just isn't suited for. He has a strange ECW run where he gets some decent showings with guys like Benoit and a surprisingly strong match with AI Snow, but he also has bad performances with Sabu and Shane Douglas. Up until 1998 (which is his breakout year easily) he's positioned as a generic undercard tag worker, forced to take beatings and spam dropkicks so that his bigger-name partners look good for the hot tag. He does have some decent 1997 German Catch work alongside everything else where you can see him put the pieces together for his reinvention when he returns but pre-prime Nishimura was a shaky performer depending on who he was with.

"6. Did they have the opportunities to produce a large body of excellent matches?
IF YES
6a Do they have a large body of excellent matches?

Absolutely. Starting from 1998 Nishimura every year from there has a HUGE body of incredible showings, easily able to work with virtually anyone given the conditions. There's not one year where you can't find at least a few standout performances out of him.

6b Do they have a large body of excellent matches against a variety of opponents?

Once again, yes: Nishimura has a fantastic history of getting guys like Tenzan, Suwama, Yasuda, Bob Sapp, Nakanishi, Hama and other smashmouth power wrestlers to some of their most protracted yet great showings, sometimes even multiple times year by years as shown by his history of carrying Tenzan in G1 performances. He can make older performers like Fujinami, St Clair, Dory Funk Jr, Saito, Kengo Kimura and co look good for their age, managing to patiently work at their pace while not exposing their limitations. He can take complete nobodies to decent showings: just check out his long history of carrying random ass Dory-trainees. There's very little he can't not work well with, so much so that "bad" matches tangibly stand out massively as a result.

6c Do they have a large body of excellent matches in a variety of settings? (for example singles, tags, gimmicks, no gimmicks, brawls, technical, short matches, long matches etc)

Nishimura has worked all of these styles basically to perfection in his long history. He's not much of a gimmick guy but he works surprisingly well with comedy given his HUSTLE stint and some of the more silly stuff he did in Muto-era AJPW. Nishimura isn't also mega focused on brawls.....but with guys like Suzuki or Suwama, he's more than happy to scrap it out with them and get a lot more aggressive. Tag matches he fits in like a glove, including a standout performance holding his own reaction-wise with Tenzan and Nagata in a 06.03.2004 tag where he's mostly having to share the ring with big lumps like Norton, but he works his aspect of the match so well up into the finish that it gets pretty damn big reactions. Nishimura can work 30+ minute showings basically just off the cuff, he has probably one of the best gas tanks I've seen in terms of how long he can work without looking sloppy or gassed.

6d How much of those excellent matches were a direct result of their performance?"

Obviously Nishimura doesn't carry all of the workload, but with many of the guys I mentioned above, he's easily carrying them to better performances than standard. Suwama is infamous for being rather poor in long matches, but Nishimura is one of the few to not be effected by this, instead getting some of his best early showings. Same with Tenzan, same with Sapp (who somehow manages to look good in a technical sequence with him??) etc etc. Many of his matches are paced in such a way where you know it's all on his side, so there's no subtlety in that regard. 

 

"7.  Do they have a large body of excellent performances in a variety of roles (heel/face, undercard/midcard/main event, champion/challenger, underdog/favorite, younger/older etc)"

This is slightly tricky because Nishimura doesn't really wrestle "heel" per-se. He's not someone who's rubbing their hands together and doing evil laughs if that's what you consider being a heel as. He'll definitely work a Bret-style subtle heel against bigger babyfaces or rookie talent, dominating longer than usual and using smart cut-offs to get sympathy for them, but a outright heel performance? Doesn't really exist. Nishimura wrestles nearly all of his early career as a undercard underdog made to get the hot tags over, a task that he does pretty well from the footage available. He is able to wrestle competent matches wherever on the card, either in nothing 6-man vet tags, comedy openers, random indie matchups, etc. He's a fantastic challenger, getting bigger reactions than Triple Crown Kawada and stealing the thunder from NJPW Champ Nagata and Sasaki respectfully, not including everything else on the table. 

Nishimura really doesn't change much as he gets older: he gets less opportunities to show off with better workers (not helped by horrendous AJPW booking) but when he gets the spotlight, he's the same as he was 20 years ago, just slower and less high-paced. He really has not aged much in-ring at all, probably helped by his low-impact style and next to perfect consistency in the ring, never botching or looking sloppy. 

 

"8. Do they work in a way that is consistent with the way they're booked & presented?"

Again, tricky question. Nishimura as a Young Lion worked as a generic Jr heavyweight; pretty bad all things considered, not his fault given the cards he was dealt. Fortunes change in 1998 when he starts to get featured more in extended feuds as a no-nonsense old-school grappler, and he carries that rep all the way throughout his career. He's someone who is defined by his technical excellence, which needless to say, he backs up aplenty. 

 

"9. What are their standout traits? (For example, selling, psychology, offense, character work etc)"

Nishimura's best features come from how he presents himself uniquely from his peers at the time. He's in a world of Strong Style/puro bombs, something that he, simply put, isn't GOOD at whatsoever. He can't finish matches with strikes alone, he usually gets overpowered in extended brawls, he can't land big bombs at all and doesn't have the size or strength to run people over. Nishimura shows off those negatives so that audiences sympathise with him massively, but it also allows him to throw in his counter-heavy style, which is immensely dynamic and utterly unpredictable most of the time. He has to grind guys down with holds and smart work to get around all of his disadvantages. His character work in that aspect is sensational, and the fact that he can turn on a dime when he's in his element (like, say, Muga showings, more technical showcases) to a more confident and cocky opponent shows that it is definitely deliberate on his part. 

For me, Nishimura's strengths come from his nuance when working. He isn't someone who will wow you with spots, but little things, like selling the leg by hopping over for his Cobra Twist on his good leg or having to hit his strikes with one leg for leverage so he doesn't fall over are things that award you for watching the wrestling carefully. His psychology is fantastic; he knows what to do at all times and how it makes sense according to the logic above. Barring maybe his weird 1998 Sasaki showing where he turns into a weird spot/brawler guy for one night only, he's internally very consistent. 

 

 

10.   Did they make the people and workers around them better?

Again, absolutely so. Nishimura is kinda infamous for his ability to carry virtually anyone to a good showing, even if he's not putting in a lot of effort. he's good with decent to ok workers, he's great with good to solid workers, and he can be unbelievably solid with the right wrestler alongside him. His internal consistency allows for Young Lions and the like to shine when having to handle him in the ring pretty easily. It might be what actually harms him later on as he keeps getting used as someone who can work very well with rookies and older acts rather than actually wrestling good wrestlers. 

 

11.   Is there any reason to believe that this wrestler was better or worse than they appeared?

This is also tricky. Some people kinda just insist he's a Dory Funk Jr tribute act when in reality, he's someone who combines a ton of different wrestling styles (German/British Catch, Fujinami stuff, Dory Funk spots, Inoki-lite bits etc) alongside his own unique blend of counter-heavy roll-up technique into something truly unique in the wrestling scene. No one truly wrestles like Nishimura, and I don't think we'll ever see someone like him again.

 

12.   If you had to pick 5-10 matches (Or more) to sell someone on this wrestler what would they be? (Not necessarily the best matches but ones that are best representative of the wrestlers’ GWE case)

Ok, so the best to sell to someone who knows nothing about Nishimura and wants to get what the fuss is:

Masakazu Fukuda (15.05.1998)

& Yuki Ishikawa vs. Shinichi Nakano & Tatsumi Fujinami (03.03.1998)

Yuji Nagata (08.08.2002)

Shinsuke Nakamura (28.08.2002)

Yoshihiro Takayama (10.08.2002)

Suwama (28.06.2008) also watch their equally as good 15 minute Carnival showing (08.04.2008)

Tatsumi Fujinami (25.09.2006, Fuji's last truly great showing)

Tajiri Series (23.09.2007/08.08.2013)

Takashi Iizuka (06.10.2002)

Toshiaki Kawada (03.09.2004) 

Jun Akiyama (11.08.2003)

Watch all of these and you'll get only about a quarter of his truly great showings. It's a good foundation though, wide versatility. 

13.   Feel free to recommend more matches here if you like!

Koji Kanemoto (08.08.2004)

Yoon Kang Chul (27.09.2018)

Kentaro Shiga (29.08.2002)

Kengo Kimura Retirement (18.04.2003)

Basically all of his early 2000's G1 showings 

W/ Manabu Nakanishi vs. Bob Sapp & Shinsuke Nakamura (03.11.2003)

W/ Tenzan vs Ryusuke Taguchi & Shinsuke Nakamura (19.07.2004)

W/ Muto vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shinsuke Nakamura (09.10.2004)

W/ Nakanishi vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masahiro Chono (05.06.2002)

Minoru Suzuki (04.08.2005)

 

14.   Any final thoughts you’d like to share?

Nishimura only has a few people that he truly doesn't work really that great with: in this case, the only two that properly come to mind are Keiji Muto and Chono. Muto for some reason just doesn't click with Nishimura's more subdued work: they try on two separate occasions (2001 and 2004 respectfully) to get a dynamic going and it just never comes. Chono is less extreme but Nishimura seems to bring out the worst in him in terms of his tendency to drag out holds, sit in them for years before doing the bare minimum. In both of these cases it's not really Nishimura's fault, he's still as motivated as ever but just can't drag amazing quality like he typically can. 

I think it's also crazy that we also don't have access to a lot of Nishimura's potentially great showings: a lot of the Gaora Sports era of AJPW is still very poorly circulated, including a entire 2009 Champion Carnival stint involving a rematch with Takayama and a 30 minute draw with Kaz Hayashi just missing. This is also not including the fact that a vast majority of the Fujinami MUGA stuff from 2006/2007 also just doesn't exist, which is a shame given how extensively it featured Nishimura. Despite this, he's still got a ton of fantastic showings, and I hope that this has at least been educational as to what those are.

For fun, here's a quick top five worst Nishimura showings

1. Dory Funk Jr. (28.11.2018: just a sad performance really, I don't like watching this)

2. Rikiya Fudo (11.06.2017: Nishimura does his best Hogan impression)

3. vs "brother" YASSHI (09.12.2007: just a bad comedy match)

4. W/ Jinsei Shinzaki vs Makai #1 (Super Strong Machine) & Tadao Yasuda (23.09.2003: everyone is waiting for Onita/Sasuke, NO one gives a shit about this)

5. Vs Sabu (03.03.1995: Botches galore) 

Thank you for reading!

 

[DGinnetty]

 

When Nishimura got the big slap at Inoki's retirement show, my friend and I both said "He's getting the big push." 

The crowd at the Dome knew it too, and popped when Inoki sapped him across the face.

Too bad Nishimura got testicular cancer shortly after that.

 

The 6/5/02 tag match was a tour-de-force performance, IMO.

His MUGA style, coupled with Inoki-esque mannerisms worked very well together.

Nakanishi was injured and was taken backstage, leaving Nishimura alone to fight off Chono and Tenzan by himself was fun to watch.

Nishimura bails out of the ring after sustained double teaming and removes his boots to wrestle the rest of the match barefoot!

He goes from MUGA-mode to SUPER MUGA-mode!!  The crowd goes ballistic.

Although only 37 minutes of the match aired, it is fantastic.

 

Dan Ginnetty

[Ma Stump Puller]

13 hours ago, DGinnetty said:

 

When Nishimura got the big slap at Inoki's retirement show, my friend and I both said "He's getting the big push." 

The crowd at the Dome knew it too, and popped when Inoki sapped him across the face.

Too bad Nishimura got testicular cancer shortly after that.

 

The 6/5/02 tag match was a tour-de-force performance, IMO.

His MUGA style, coupled with Inoki-esque mannerisms worked very well together.

Nakanishi was injured and was taken backstage, leaving Nishimura alone to fight off Chono and Tenzan by himself was fun to watch.

Nishimura bails out of the ring after sustained double teaming and removes his boots to wrestle the rest of the match barefoot!

He goes from MUGA-mode to SUPER MUGA-mode!!  The crowd goes ballistic.

Although only 37 minutes of the match aired, it is fantastic.

 

Dan Ginnetty

Thanks Dan! It really seemed like Nishimura was starting to break out around that time with how popular he was getting with audiences, and his cancer sadly takes the gas off that hype (as well as robbing us of potential matches with Hashimoto and the like, which were sadly only hinted at) but he quickly makes that up with his 2000 G1 showings despite having only been back for a month or so, which is wild in and of itself.

 

[Ma Stump Puller]

I'll bump this only to add in more matches that should be watched for Nishimura GWE analysis

vs Suwama (AJPW Pro-Wrestling Love In Taiwan/11.20.2009)

w/ Joe Malenko vs Masakatsu Funaki & Minoru Suzuki (Real World Tag League/11.20.2010)

I'm pissed that the old AJPW Gaora channel is defunct now because it had this + more shit that could've gotten a good shake if I'd been able to snap it up. Oh well.