The Dark and Mysterious Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Masakatsu Funaki PWFG 7/26/91-EPIC

Man was this great. This was almost completely worked on the feet, alot of throwing hands and feet. There was some mat stuff early, but it was really incidental to what was going on. I really dug Fujiwara's in fighting here. He was working over Funaki on the inside, throwing little bodyshots, and a great looking sneak short headbutt which dropped him for a count. Funaki is the guy with the reach and Fujiwara needs to conduct the match on the inside to win. Funaki was winning the distance here, and Fujiwara is awesome at selling a beating. He does almost a Flair flop when he get caught with the heel of Funaki's boot when he was going for a single leg crab.

The finish is what really made this match. Funaki drops Fujiwara with a high kick for a close ten count. Fujiwara barely beats count, and Funaki is all over him, trying to finish the fight. Thigh kicks, hooking slaps, kicks to the head he swarms all over Fujiwara against the ropes. Fujiwara is so overwhelmed that at one point he almost turns his back, which Funaki just drills him with some kidney shots, Fujiwara is able to get off the ropes but he is backpedaling eating shots, Funaki shoots confidentially for the takedown, and boom, Fujiwara catches his arm in a a Fujiwara armbar using his legs, he wrenches and Funaki has to tap out. Probably the best flash finish I have ever seen in wrestling. Really puts over Fujiwara as the master defensive wrestler, someone you can never count out, never drop your guard, as he can get you like that. Had me jumping off my couch. Just awesome stuff.


Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Shinya Hashimoto v. Alexander Otsuka/Katsumi Usuda Zero One 7/12/01- FUN

This was a mostly one sided beating, and I was hoping for a more competitive match. However if you have to have a one side beating, Hashimoto and Fujiwara are guys who will horribly beat you and Otsuka and Usuda are guys who can take a huge beating. The match opens with Fujiwara and Usuda doing some super fast mat work, and then the beating commences. Most of the match was Otsuka trying to prove he belongs to his teacher and Hash by absorbing a monster asskicking, they bust him open and stomp the shit out of him. There was a great spot where he ducks a kick and finally gets off a big German suplex on Hashimoto, which has to be like lifting a small horse.


Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Kintaro Kanemura Zero-One 9/1/03-GREAT

This is from the 2003 Fire Festival and is just a total blast. You have the king of the scum garbage indies v. the king of the scum shoot indies. Fujiwara slaps the shit out W*ING to start the match. He also lands some nasty headbutts busting up Kanemaru's head hardway (of coure he probably gets busted open legit putting on a baseball cap) but gets cut off by a punt to the balls.

Fujiwara sells shots to the balls really well, wincing with each motion afterwards. There is a great fighting spirit spot near the end of the matches, where they exchange slaps and ball punts, and Fujiwara does a really great fighting through testicle pain sell. Kanemaru takes it to the streets slamming Fujiwara into the rail and putting him through a table. He controls until he decides to smash Fujiwara's head into a table, he dents the table, but everyone know you can't hit Fujiwara in the head. He comes back with some brutal slaps and headbutts until Kanemaru bumps the ref. Kintaro grabs a chair a swings it, but Fujiwara catches his arm in a Fujiwara armbar, an awesome counter, unfortunately the ref is down, and when Fujiwara checks on him, he gets rolled up in a very RAW semi-main kind of finish.

This was really fun, Fujiwara fits perfectly in a crazy brawl, and has some really fun garbage wrestling spots. Kanemaru is a guy who has great shtick, and can do his match really well, and Fujiwara plugs right into a Kanemaru match and it is great.

The Complete and Accurate List of All the Yoshiaki Fujiwara