Hey, This Happened: Naoya Ogawa vs. Baby Hashimoto

Naoya Ogawa vs. Daichi Hashimoto IGF 12/31/15

ER: People do weird things in life to honor their fathers. Or avenge their fathers. Or...look, I don't know. Sometimes people follow in the steps of their fathers and sometimes they don't. But Naoya Ogawa has now kicked two different generations of Hashimotos directly in their eye socket. He may be the only person who gets to brag about that. My father and I both have the same middle name, Earl. But so far in our lives we have not been kicked in the eye by the same man. I have never been kicked in the eye, so anybody who has kicked my father in the eye has not yet tracked me down. Daichi Hashimoto is still very young, but probably too old to still have "going through a phase" hair. With his purple bangs you can perfectly visualize the awkward family dinners with his folks asking him how school was and Daichi just sitting there with his arms crossed, asking to be excused without even touching his food that his mother took time to prepare. But he jumps Ogawa before the bell and attacks with slaps and kicks, enough to make Ogawa roll to the floor to put some distance between. But Hash chases and then Ogawa tees right off on him, laying him out with a rough high kick. Daichi crumbles admirably. Back in and Daichi attempts some stuff from a mount but Ogawa wriggles out, punishes him, and then casually walks up behind a kneeling Hashimoto and wraps a kick around his left orbital bone. Done. Ogawa does the airplane taunt over another fallen Hashimoto; Kazuyuki Fujita, looking more and more like George the Animal Steele only with no eyebrows, gets in the ring and tries to start shit; somewhere, someone checks to see if Gary Steele or Dylan Night have children, who he can then book against Colby Corino and Daichi Hashimoto in a 4 way iron man match, to be held at some Allentown, PA Vet's building. Was that person me? Perhaps.

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Weeping May Remain For a Night, But Yoshiaki Fujiwara Comes in the Morning

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Riki Choshu NJ 8/6/94-GREAT

These two guys have just magically charisma with each other. Their June 1987 match is one of my favorite matches of all time, this doesn't live up to that, but it is a worthy entry in the cannon. Fujiwara knows exactly where he is going to win this match, he needs to get Choshu to the ground and submit him, while Choshu wants to keep the match on the feet and smash Fujiwara. It is worked very similar to a striker v. ju jitsu artist MMA match, although way more exciting then those matches usually are. Choshu ends up cutting Fujiwara on the temple and both guys are awesome at losing their temper and talking shit. Unusually for a Fujiwara match this wasn't about the arm, as Fujiwara is constantly moving Choshu into the corners and dragging him down and attacking his leg. FInish was pretty surprising as Fujiwara has a ankle lock variation and Choshu is pulling himself to the ropes to break, he gets almost their but can't take it and gives up. Seemed really abrupt, and that probably kept this from being an EPIC match, still excellent stuff, and Fujiwara really had a hell of a 1994

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Minoru v. Daichi Hashimoto/Shinjiro Otani IGF 4/28/11-GREAT

If you are looking for someone to work a compelling exciting match against a green but super over kicker, Yoshiaki Fujiwara would lead every list. One of the better Fujiwara performances in the last decade, he takes Hashimoto drags him to the mat, roughs him up in the corners, while still giving the kid chances to flash what he will become. Hashimoto is a mirror at this point, anything you get out of him will reflect what you put in. The finish here was a classic Fujiwara finish. Minoru is working over Hashimoto and tags in Fujiwara, Fujiwara rushes in only to be met by a Daichi flurry which knocks him to the ground. The overzealous youngster rushes in, only to almost get caught in the Fujiwara armbar. He rolls out, gets back to his feet to throw again, this time Fujiwara yanks the arm down and cranks it for the tap out. Such cool stuff. Ohtani and Minoru were fun too, but baby Hash should work with Fujiwara every night and in six months he will be great.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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