#13: Mitsuharu Misawa

by Eric

Man this was a tough one, huh? It's easy to say someone isn't as good as they once were, and talk about how fat they've gotten, how much slower they are now, etc. It's harder to appreciate someone for who they have become. Many people have watched Misawa matches the last few years longing for a run like his full 90s run. The problem is, they couldn't accept that he was a different man than his 90s self. He was now the owner of a semi-successful cottage industry promotion, boss of 40+ people, figurehead of the company, and into his 40s. The bumps had caught up, the injuries mounted, injuries hampered training, job stress lead to weight gain, and on and on and on.

This was a different Misawa than any previous year. Sometimes it can be hard to push the young, vibrant, risk-taking Misawa out of our heads and accept him for who he became. It's hard, but is necessary, out of enjoyment of wrestling and respect for the wrestlers, to appreciate what this legend became. Misawa became one of the best characters in wrestling the last couple years before his untimely passing. He was Clint Eastwood in "Unforgiven". He wanted to retire. He knew his job was killing him. But people relied on him. People needed him. He couldn't help but keep going. Misawa's face the last couple years was among the most expressive in all of wrestling. With every bump, every shot taken, his face would read "Why can't KENTA or Marufuji get over? Why didn't Morishima work? Why did MMA have to blow apart pro wrestling?" Misawa was Bill Munny reluctantly working one last match, wanting to honor Baba's memory and keep his workers fed, all while doing what was killing him, what he knew was his true nature.

To expect a lightning fast Misawa was just unfair. I saw Link Wray 4 months before he died. He was 76 years old, was wearing a fannypack onstage, and had a back-up guitarist doing most of the licks that his hands couldn't handle any longer. But he played "Rumble" alone, and it sounded as amazing as it must've sounded to the hordes of sexed-up teenagers in 1958. I saw Ron Asheton playing with the Stooges 8 months before his death. He was older, slower, fatter, but that feedback was pure Ron Asheton. That nastiness of "No Fun", oozing out of his amp sounded as great as it must've sounded to greasy Detroit sleeze bags in 1969.

And I saw Misawa live a few years ago. He was older, slower, fatter, and I couldn't help but jump up and down when the lights went out and his music played.

It's easy to write someone off as being past their prime. But we owe it to him to appreciate all the things he still did well - and the things he did even better - than that younger, fresher, faster wrestler.

R.I.P. Misawa, you were the man that got me interested in puro.

Recommended 2008 Matches:

~w/ Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Jun Akiyama/Atsushi Aoki (NOAH, 2/21/08)
~vs. Takeshi Morishima (NOAH, 3/2/08)
~w/ Yoshinari Ogawa/Ricky MArvin vs. Akira Taue/Masao Inoue/Kishin Kawabata (NOAH, 5/15/09)
~w/ Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akira Taue/Kishin Kawabata (NOAH, 6/29/08)
~w/ Ricky Marvin/Taiji Ishimori vs. Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima/Kota Ibushi (NOAH, 10/25/08)
~vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima (NOAH, 12/7/08)

Recommended Career Matches:

~Close your eyes and point

2009 Outlook:

OK. It doesn't look great. He had a few fun to very good matches in the first 6 months, so I expect he'd be on the list. My only real hope for an '09 Outlook is that Kobashi doesn't try and pick up the slack and overwork himself to the same finish.

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#14: Daisuke Ikeda

by Phil

Ikeda is kind of an interesting case as he is really high on this list for one match (I enjoyed him beating Yoshikawa, but that was basically a squash). Still when that one match is the epic July BattlArts six man, and the performance is as good as Ikeda’s performance, it will get you damn high. Ikeda was just great in that match. He spends the first 10 minutes or so on the apron just laying in cheap shots, and when he finally comes in he just murders his opponents. We got to see long sections against both Otsuka and Ishikawa and you definitely got the sense that Ikeda is still on their level. He may be the best wrestler at the world at conveying that reckless violent asskicker vibe that Stan Hansen used to (the other contenders are probably Negro Navarro and Bull Pain). It is damn frustrating that Futen is maybe the only gathering of more then five Japanese people which isn’t being video taped, but I am glad we got the glance we got.

Recommended 2008 Matches:

~w/ Katsumi Usuda/Super Tiger II vs. Yuki Ishikawa/Alexander Otsuka/Munenori Sawa (BattlArts, 7/26/08)
~vs. Yuta Yoshikawa (BattlArts, 8/6/08)

Career Recommended Matches:

~vs. Yuki Ishikawa (BattlArts, 5/26/98)
~w/ Mohammed Yone vs. Yuki Ishikawa/Alexander Otsuka (BattlArts, 1/12/99)
~vs. Alexander Otsuka (BattlArts, 6/26/99)
~vs. Yuki Ishikawa (BattlArts, 8/29/99)
~w/ Takashi Sugiura vs. Takeshi Morishima/Takeshi Rikio (NOAH, 5/29/02)

2009 Outlook:

Not good, Futen has stopped working with BattlArts, and so nothing has shown up anywhere. It is very frustrating that I can’t even get a HH on Youtube. So while we know he is killing people somewhere, unless we see it he won’t make a 2009 list.

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Nothing Great in this World has Ever Been Accomplished Without Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Super Tiger UWF 9/7/84-EPIC

This was the opening match of their series, and it was really interesting to watch the different way they approached each other and the style they were working. This was much more of a New Japan style match, then a shootstyle match, although you could see the style starting to evolve. For example while Tiger is still going for top rope moves, he isn't hitting them. Both times he tries, Fujiwara moves. They still are doing piledrivers, but at least Fujiwara's actually is a counter out of a triangle choke, kind of a incubatory Hughes v. Newton spot.

It wasn't just the style that is different, Fujiwara really controls this match way more then their others. Fujiwara really is a heavyweight against a junior, Tiger's stuff really comes in flurries, while Fujiwara is on top for most of this. They are really great flurries, and Fujiwara is a master at selling a surprise knockdown. Just the way he approaches him, there is none of the tentativeness of later matches, he just walks Tiger down, and counters a lot of his offense. Tiger is the scrappy underdog junior heavyweight which is completely counter to the way he is perceived later, I think this match went a long way in establishing him as a peer to Fujiwara and Maeda, and the finish run of big kicks and the chickenwing you can tell sort of shocks the crowd.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Osamu Kido/Kazuo Yamazaki v. Big Van Vader/Masa Saito NJ 2/14/88- FUN

This was part of the introductory tour of Big Van Vader, and he was killing folks in these type of handicap matches. The steam is gone from the UWF invasion at this point and these guys are being used as spunky jobbers. Fujiwara and Saito have some fun exchanges, and Fujiwara shoots him this awesome look of distaste when he smacks his head against the ring bolt. I really like JYD Fujiwara, but that really is the least Fujiwara, and I wish he and Vader could have a more substantial match against each other.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Riki Choshu NJ 6/19/88 - GREAT

Kind of a minor match in their oeuvre, which is still going to be better then 99% of the other stuff in the history of the world. These two always ramp up the intensity. Choshu is a guy who throws a nasty lariats, and Fujiwara is a guy with lots of ways to play defense. The biggest near fall is when Fujiwara catches the lariat and moves super smoothly into a Fujiwara armbar. Really cool finish with Choshu countering a headbutt with a straight right, and nuking him with Riki lariats. Still by 1988 Fujiwara was clearly at a lower level push wise then Choshu so this wasn't as pitched of a battle as their 1987 series.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Riki Choshu v. Hiroshi Hase/Great Muta NJ 4/7/94- GREAT

This was a pretty awesome short match. Hase is just ripping it up with Fujiwara and Choshu, chucking them with nasty suplexes, getting rocked with lariats and headbutts. Muta spends the match on the outside making faces and when he gets tagged in, he mists Hase in the face. Choshu and Fujiwara jump him. There is a classic spot in a bunch of Fujiwara match where he is unloading with a run of headbutts and he gets countered. Here he is unloading on Muta and you just are waiting for him to catch a face full of mist. It is awesome no one makes better faces then Fujiwara, and his "face full of mist" face is just great. Choshu and Fujiwara make a great grumpy team, and I am hoping I can unearth other tag matches from around this time.

The Complete and Accurate Yoshiaki Fujiwara

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