Masakazu Fukuda

[Grimmas]

Jetlag:

Incredibly talented guy whose career was unfortunately cut very short by his tragic passing. That said, Fukuda was quite great pretty much from the get go, and he stood out in a big way with his gangly physique and unique style. I would say he kinda wrestled like Tamon Honda before Tamon Honda wrestled like Tamon Honda, just a unique grappler with a knack for cool submissions and nifty suplexes, and not afraid to scrap hard. Apparently his background was sumo and he was even in the RINGS dojo for a bit. Lots of little gem performance from him working WYF, MUGA or NJPW, with the WYF vs Buko Dojo feud being an obvious standout as well as pushing Liger to the limit or having a mat classic with Osamu Nishimura. Really wish I could find footage of his sole appearance in Germany which sounds fantastic too.

Recommendations:

vs Osamu Nishimura, NJPW/MUGA 5/15/1998

w KAMIKAZE vs Yoshikazu Taru & Takashi Okamura, WYF 4/29/1997

vs Kazuhiko Shoda, NJPW7MUGA 12/8/1998

[Ma Stump Puller]

Sadly of no fault of his own his career was far too short for me to really grade him on a top 100. That said, solid wrestler with a really wicked technical edge to them.