Dick Togo Drive You Crazy, He Done Drove Shyne Jew. Mazaltov, Now He's Hotter Then A Molotov

Dick Togo vs. TAKA Michinoku WWF Raw 5/25/98 - FUN 

PAS: This was a RAW match for TAKA's WWF Light Heavyweight belt, and the kind of fun sprint you would expect these guys to do in five minutes. Later in his run Togo was pretty much the world's greatest Joel Hartgood, but here he was in the middle of an undercard feud so we got to see more of his stuff. They saved the senton bomb for the post match beatdown, but Dick did hit a beautiful Buzz powerslam and a rolling senton off the ring apron. It is fun watching these guys rip off spot after spot, it wasn't huge stuff, so there wasn't any no-selling, but they wanted to show off in their nickel. TAKA was so quick and charismatic you could totally see why he ended up with the contract, still clear that they dropped the ball with him. No reason he couldn't have been Rey Jr. 

ER: This was Togo's first WWF singles match, and it was basically worked like a short tryout match for both guys (it obviously wasn't a tryout match, but had that same vibe as one). Even though I didn't actually know who Kaientai was when they debuted in WWF, Togo was always my favorite, namely because of the beefiness and the Iron Maiden fandom. Here he bumps fast for Taka's great offense and doesn't give Taka a choice in bumping for his. Togo bumps on his shoulders for Taka's great missile dropkick, and absorbs Taka's always incredible no hands springboard crossbody. He pays him back with a hard elbow while Taka was on the apron, sending him flying into the guardrail, then hits a nice cannonball off the apron. He buries his boots into Taka's gut to block a crossbody, and hits a fantastic snap powerslam. They set things up in a very same-y WWF way, like they keep going back to Togo missing clotheslines to set up offense, but I liked the suddenness of the finish, Taka surprising him with a tight hurricanrana, and we still get to see Togo's huge senton when Kaientai dished out a postmatch beatdown. 

Dick Togo/Daio QUALLT/Black Buffalo vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa/Masato Yakushiji/Tsubasa Osaka Pro 11/6/00 - EPIC 

PAS: This was a classic mid 90s MPRO six man, everything we love about that style match was present here in spades. One of the impressive things about this match was how they pulled that off even with some lesser replacements. Tsubasa, Buffalo and QUALLT are no Sasuke, TAKA and Teioh but they are in the mix and hit all of their stuff well, Tsubaba for example did his best Sasuke impression by flying into the seats with a quebrada. Your MPRO veterans were your stand outs, Togo v. Yakushiji is one of my favorite match ups in wrestling history and it was great here too, but Yakushiji was shining with everyone. Just such a spectacular wrestler, he hits all of his crazy headscissors variations at a million miles an hour and takes one of the cooler, crazier out of the ring clothesline bumps I have seen in years. This kind of match is a little hard to review, without just cursing and listing cool spots, it is basically the wrestling equivalent of doing two lines of bathtub crank and stealing a car, it is everything that people who talk up Dragons Gate claim that is, even though it isn't. Great stuff, and discovering things like this is why I wanted to do a Togo project. 

Dick Togo/"Brother" YASSHI/Jumping Kid Okimoto vs. Takuya Sugawara/Brahman Shu/Brahman Kei El Dorado 12/29/07 - GREAT 

PAS: One of the more preposterous enjoyable train wreck matches I have seen in a while. This was a ladder match for some El Dorado title, and pulled off what all of the overbooked TNA spotfests fail at. I have been really digging the Brahman's in FUTEN and they are pretty great in this context too, Togo isn't the focus of this match, but he looks good. There was an especially insane looking spot where he leaps off the top rope onto a ladder while a Brahman is climbing, and the whole thing explodes. There is also this giant barrell, which they do some random cool spots with, including Okimoto taking a nasty bump on the side. The finish is totally lunatic with one of the Braham's climbing to the balcony and hooking up a carabiner to the cable holding the belt and shimmying down the cable, Okimoto starts climbing the cable too, and headbutts the Brahman, before getting knocked off. So then end of the match has everyone hitting spots with one Brahman hanging above the ring like a scarecrow. He eventually regains his barrings and grabs the belt. Not a match that makes a ton of sense if you think about much, but turn your brain off and you will dig it. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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Dick Togo is Clearing out the Pipes, Draino Brothers, The Whole Game Got Rollies in Rainbow Colors

SATO/Kendo/Piloto Suicida vs. Super Delfin/Super Boy/Gran Naniwa MPRO 7/94 - FUN 

PAS: This had about 10 minutes clipped, so it was hard to get a huge handle on what was going on. All six of these guys are really smooth wrestlers, and Superboy especially is an athletic marvel, as crazy agile as Dick Togo with 80 more pounds. Hadn't seen much of Piloto Suicida recently and all of his stuff looked great, as did Kendo. The stuff we saw was focused more on the comedy spots then a usual MPRO six-man. That maybe a side effect of the clipping, it may not have dominated as much in a longer match. For what I saw though, it overwhelmed the cool lucha. Finish run was sweet though especially the dive train, and Delfin murdering Pilota with his tornado DDT 

Dick Togo/Tigers Mask/Black Buffalo vs. Tsubasa/Asian Cougar/Billy Ken Kid Osaka Pro 4/29/09 - FUN

PAS: Worked like a traditional MPRO six man, although 2009 Osaka doesn't have the horses that 1996 MPRO had. Tsubasa, Cougar and Kid have nice spots, but their in between stuff didn't look great. This maybe the slimmest I have ever seen Togo, and while he doesn't have the fat boy heft anymore, he was getting freaky height and speed on everything he does. The rotation on his flips, the height on the senton just crazy looking. Asian Cougar isn't afraid to die on a senton on chairs to the floor, and Togo plants BKK with a Pepsi plunge which was pretty sweet. 

Dick Sato vs. Hip Hop Man 100% Lucha 3/9/08 - GREAT 

PAS: Totally awesome 7 minute TV match from Argentina of all places (THE MOTHERFUCKING INTERNET!!). They kick out the jams and go at a crazy pace the whole time. Hip Hop Man is a game dude, he had really pretty ranas and hits a crazy run the ropes flip dive. Togo is clearly trying to impress a new crowd, he breaks out all of his athletic stuff, and even hits a rolling senton off the apron to the floor, which I have never seen before. Pretty much a textbook debut in a new territory. I can totally see the crowd wanting to see more of this invader. This is the kind of thing which would have made an episode of Worldwide. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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Since Yeah Tall, Dick Togo was MJG With That 8-Ball

Dick Togo/Men's Teioh/Shiryu v.s Great Sasuke/Masato Yakushiji/Gran Hamada MRPO 10/19/96 - EPIC

Fuck it, Masato Yakushiji is the lost great junior of the 1990's. He is so great in this match as the whipping boy for the dastardly heels, taking a big beating and firing back with cool looking slickly executed offense. He and Togo are probably the best married opponents in MPRO, with Togo and Hamada right behind them, and we get big chunks of both here. Hamada's sky high rana eaten by Dick Togo is maybe the best looking paired offensive move in wrestling history, Hamada looks like a cartoon character getting shot out of a rocket and when he lands he whips Togo around like a tilt a whirl. Finish run was really exciting with the really cool MPRO thing of offensive moves coming out of weird corners. We even got a little crowd brawling to start the match with Sasuke taking awkward bumps through swinging doors. Though Shiryu was a little subdued, but otherwise this was as good as it gets.

Dick Togo/Ikuto Hidaka vs. Low-Ki/Spanky Z-1 2/19/04 - GREAT

Four guys with really cool spots, doing a bunch of really cool spots. For a guy who was so inspired by Japan, Ki never had a Puro match anywhere near the level of his best US Indy stuff, this didn't have much substance but was a pretty sweet junior sprint. Ki and Togo have a couple of early standoffs which were really great looking, I especially dug how Ki worked in the Santo headscissors. That felt like a singles match ROH should have run in 2004. Ki was a little over the top with his mugging and posing, which is something that he a did in Japan. Spanky is a guy who does everything well, nothing spectacularly. The big run finish was a big run finish, with everyone hitting their signature big spots, and finishing with a sweet firebird splash/frog splash one two punch.

Dick Togo vs. Hideyoshi Osaka Pro 6/28/09 - EPIC

This is the first real out of nowhere hidden gem I have unearthed for this project. I don't know much about Osaka Pro, and have never seen Hideyoshi before and really know nothing about him, but this was a damn good singles match. Hideyoshi is a bigger dude (for Japanese indy wrestling, he is probably 5'9 180) and he takes large parts of this match with nice power moves including a sweet looking powerslam, and nice jackhammer. Togo is great as a guy fighting from below. There is a part where he does these awesome wild missed swings, while Hideyoshi cockishly moves out of the way of. Finish run was pretty crazy with lots of interference from seconds, Hideyoshi's finisher is a crossface cobra clutch, and he gets some big near falls with it, especially after lifting his knees on a senton which was brutal. Togo uses a Billy Ken Kid chairshot to hit a tornado pedigree and the senton for the big win. which really felt like he came through a war.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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