Mitsuo Momota: I Recommend Matches To Make You Love Him

[Owen Edwards]

I like Mitsuo Momota (prof pic related). I think he's legitimately very underrated, largely because most people know him from AJPW comedy matches and most people have a priggish distaste for them (I like them). He's good in those, and he's good in curtainjerking matches (I've written an essay on my blog about those), and he's good in serious matches. He was a crowd favourite, especially at the Korakuen, for a reason. He was good into the mid-00s and perfectly passable as a pensioner into the late 10s. He's a high workrate, high personality guy, with a decent moveset and very strong matwork. He only really works as a fiery babyface in his "prime" (...mostly after he's aged 40), but he has some good grumpy old man moments too.

Starting match rec, possibly his career match: vs Masanobu Fuchi for the PWF Junior Heavyweight Title, 29/03/1989 (link below; Roy's recently put up the full version from Classics, the TV version on YT is clipped).

My review: "This is not yet part of Fuchi’s record-length reign, which starts later in 1989; this is during his short second reign. This is very good. The Korakuen is very, very hot here. They chant “Momota” from before the match to after it, they boo Fuchi hard throughout, especially when he wants to do his moves. Momota is older than Fuchi here and well-established as the curtain-jerker, but he has just had a challenge against Mighty Inoue, so he’s a natural lower-ranked challenger. Momota runs a long early shine segment starting with a crossbody and then a high-impact suicida. A curious thing with Momota – it comes up elsewhere – is that he can work shine off putting his opponent in holds. He counters Fuchi again and again, keeps him slowed down, and it takes some time before Fuchi gets his first big turn. Then Fuchi tortures Momota (with Kobashi as Fuchi’s cornerman, there’s an irony here). Momota can sell, screaming painfully as he’s taken down into armbreaker drops and acting very expressively with his face. The story now is that, with his technical acumen out of the way, Fuchi is just much better than him – well, so we think. His hope spots get quickly cut off, he’s really put through the wringer…and then, thrown into the corner, he somehow works a Sunset Flip, and though Fuchi does cut him off repeatedly, he scrappily works a comeback period through a mixture of guts and brains. He dodges a second fist drop and a gamengiri, he turns round a Backdrop attempt into a Crossbody pin, he works a a few flash pins when Fuchi is off-balance, after Fuchi dodges another Suicida attempt Momota slides out and dropkicks him instead. Eventually he gets a Bridging German, but Fuchi survives through it all and even when Momota hits two Backdrop Suplexes, it’s only to catch his breath, and Fuchi is up first. Still, Fuchi has to turn to a slightly exhausted Thesz Press to win – it’s almost a desperation move, and it will also remind us of Jumbo, and of that move as the mark of the ace. Possibly the best singles match of Momota’s career, and a genuinely good and emotionally compelling bout. 4.5/5".