Akebono

[Grimmas]

CheapPop1999 said (from discord):

A fantastic modern day big man who used his size to his advantage in every single match in a very old-school way. He's always the center of attention in every match he's in because he's a massive behemoth of a man no matter who else in there. He was a very reliable presence in puro for a ten year run, and is one of the best flavor of the month monsters for your ace to climb of all time.

Match recs:
w/ Takeshi Rikio vs Kenta Kobashi and Jun Izumida (NOAH 1/22/2006)
vs. Brock Lesnar (NJPW 3/19/2006)
w/ Ryoto Hama vs Strong BJ (AJPW 1/3/2012)
vs. Masakatsu Funaki (AJPW 1/26/2013)
Anything against Akiyama (my fav is AJPW 4/25/2013)
w/ Ryoto Hama vs Burning (Akiyama and Shiozaki) (AJPW 6/23/2013)
vs. Go Shiozaki (AJPW 5/21/2015)

[Ma Stump Puller]

Definitely controversial for sure. Like many big-men wrestlers he's more of a bar of quality for other workers as to how much they can get out of him rather than anything he could do himself: I remember watching some of his spectacle matches against Kobashi and Sasuke and definitely enjoying them, but at the same time Ake as a worker is very limited, got better when he was more conditioned later on and even had a fairly solid AJPW run (as you can see from almost all of the recommendations being from then) however I never seen him as a top worker bar the fact he could use his size well in matches. 

Is he bad as a wrestler per-se? Not really, but at the same time he has a wealth of bad to really rubbish showings. I like him, for the record, but I'm also not going to stick him on a top 100 list. Bob Sapp has more of a chance of getting on than he does, has the exact same positives, and Sapp has about as many good showings if not more.

 

 

[CheapPop1999]

Don't really think Akebono will make my list either, but I do think he is really good at his specific thing and should be considered, if you're someone who likes the old-school giant gimmicks. He does that better than anyone I've seen since 2000.

[William Bologna]

I'm always pleasantly surprised by Akebono matches. I realize I'm grading on a curve; I never expect much from a 40-something retired sumo wrestler.

A lot of modern wrestling lacks a sense of struggle. Akebono matches are nothing but struggle, most of it against himself. He sweats at an all-time level. You can feel the difficulty he has picking himself off the mat. When he finally lumbers into position to do damage, it means something.