Let Us Examine Our Ways and Test Them and Let Us Return to Yoshiaki Fujiwara

 

Been a while since I added to my Fujiwara C+A, which I started 15 years ago,  so I decided to look around the internet and find some things I hadn't watched and reviewed from my favorite guy ever

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Johnny Mantell NJPW 2/7/80 - GREAT

This is some of the earliest Fujiwara footage we have, and he hadn't become full caps FUJIWARA yet, and it was cool to see him try out some unfamiliar stuff. He hits Mantell with some cool half judo throw, half Ricky Steamboat armdrags, and some nasty looking European uppercuts, he even tries a running splash. There was a lot of cool grappling too, with Mantel working a more territory mat wrestling style, and Fujiwara breaking out some mat counters. The great looking Fujiwara selling was there, he sold the Mantell knees to the guy the same way he would sell a Sayama spin kick. Mantell looked good too, he had great looking Southern undercard guy punches and there is a nasty box off in the ropes. He also one with a out of context sick finish, lifting Fujiwara up for a traditional piledriver and then landing like a tombstone on his knees, these guys were just chugging along having an undercard scrap, and then Mantell breaks out some insane death move. Cool shit, better then some of the other earlier Fujiwara matches against Slaughter and Kimura.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa Zero-One 10/25/01 - GREAT

This is only five minutes, but kind of what you want from these two guys in a five minute match. Takaiwa tries to shoot in on Fujiwara a couple of times and gets caught twice in a nasty keylock and a kneebar. Takaiwa responds with some of his crowbar forearms causing Fujiwara to lay in body shots and headbutts. Takaiwa is able to life him up and hit a couple of sick death valley drivers, but as always if you don't put Fujiwara down when you can, he is going to put you down, and he sneaks in a Fujiwara armbar for a tap. Love both of these guys and dug them matching up.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA

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2001 Match of the Year

Shinya Hashimoto/Tadao Yasuda v. Tamon Honda/Masao Inoue Zero One 4/18/01

PAS: Nothing I love more then a inter promotional Japanese brawl. Team NOAH is undermanned and are awesome fighting from below. Serious Inoue is great, he is such a shlub, and I love it when he steps it up and goes to war. The Yasuda experiment was a pretty huge turn of the century failure, but this was his crowning achievement, he is a great bully smacking around Inoue with sumo thrusts and chucking him to the ground. In one of the cooler moments Yasuda has Inoue mounted and Honda runs in and chucks him with his awesome german suplex. Finish was totally boss, Hashimoto is a serial killer in this, he comes in a demolishes Inoue with these brutal looking over hand chops, they have to stop the match because his shoulder is so damaged. Has everything you want in this kind of match, bad feelings, great character work and  big time violence.


ER: Yeah these type of matches are bread and butter for me. All time asskicker, former sumo, former Olympian, chubby little loser. That's a winning combination for me. There's a lot to love in a short amount of time here, and I loved it all. Inoue gets his own ring entrance and he really soaks it up, but Hashimoto's entrance is just charisma beyond compare. A top 10 favorite of mine at the peak of his all time badass powers, sideburns with the Paul Weller shag, truly The Jam of assbeating. I'm a big fan of former sumos in pro wrestling, even the ones that aren't too great. The crowd seems to get extra electric for them, their sumo spots always get a big reaction, and they bring a "legit athlete" credibility to matches. So I'm excited right off the bat as Yasuda rushes Honda and bullies him into the corner, and then does it again with Honda catching him in a choke, followed by Honda tossing the ref aside so the can grapple. They keep coming to stalemate but the intensity burned. And then Inoue - like a 13 yr old boy trying to kiss a girl way out of his league- rushes Hash and begins blasting him with elbows, even dropping Hash down to a knee. Inoue staggering Hash is an all time great moment, but Hash has to spoil the glee by standing up and throwing the meanest overhand chops to Inoue's neck and trap and shoulder. Yasuda gets to pick on Inoue, chucks him with his underhook suplex and rolls right into mount, blasting Inoue several times. Honda breaks up the punches by coming up behind Yasuda and lifting him up and over with his great great great German suplex. We get a wonderful Honda/Hash throwdown, with Hash getting overzealous and headbutting Tamon Honda, the way a fool might. You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't open attachments from parties you don't know, and you don't try to headbutt a man with a noggin like Tamon Honda. Honda smirks at Hashimoto's headbutt and then drops Hashi to the mat with his gigantic sledgehammer of a dome. But we knew who the weak link was before we even saw a visual of the match, and before long Hash has Inoue all to himself, kicking and chopping, and Inoue's shoulder - to this day - probably sounds like a rock grinder every time he moves it. And on rainy days he is reminded of Shinya Hashimoto.


ALL TIME MOTY LIST

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SLL's All-Request Early Saturday Morning - 1/10/2015

For over a year now, Segunda Caida has been delivering at least one new piece of content daily...and precisely none of it has been mine. Let's fix that, shall we?

Welcome back to SLL's All-Request Friday Night (which, as per tradition, ran late, and is being put up early Saturday morning), wherein I review five matches as requested by YOU, the Segunda Caida reader. It's been entirely too long, folks, but it's good to be back, and I can think of no better way to kick things off than by awkwardly explaining why I like watching a murderer wrestle.

Invader I vs. Hercules Ayala (WWC, 1987)
Requested by DylanWaco

So, I've seen some Puerto Rican wrestling in my time, but it is, generally speaking, a blind spot for my fandom. Fortunately, we've seen that island and it's bloody, bloody history explored a bit more in the last few years, and it's become more visible on the radar. We have Dylan Hales to thank for that to a large extent, as he's probably been the most vocal champion of 80's Puerto Rico and the guy most likely to sell you on the stuff. Naturally, this sort of thing leads to wrestlers getting rediscovered and reevaluated, the most obvious one here being Carlos Colon. Somewhat less obviously, and somewhat more controversially, has been the rediscovery and reevaluation of Invader I, the man found not guilty of - but still generally acknowledged as having committed - the murder of Bruiser Brody, and since it's kind of an elephant in the room, I guess I should probably address it up front.

The obvious reaction is, of course, to dismiss Invader and his body of work, because he is a murderer and a monster like Chris Benoit, Jerry Estrada, and Jimmy Snuka. Then, you realize all three of the guys you just listed were good-to-great workers at some point in their careers, and you're kinda fucked. It doesn't help that while Invader's crime was unquestionably terrible, when you put it next to those of the three guys I just listed, it strikes me as pretty easily the least outrageous. Obviously, if you don't feel comfortable watching the work of a killer, Invader I is not for you, anymore than Benoit, Estrada, or Snuka are, and I'm certainly not going to judge you negatively if you hold that standard. But my heart is black as coal. I was able to watch a Chris Benoit match the day after his crime was revealed. I'm not gonna have a problem with with this guy.

So, the match. Hercules Ayala hits the ring to take on Isaac Rosario, but he's not having any of that. Fortunately for me, El Boricua over at Pro Wrestling Only was able to provide some context for this, so I know that the recently heel-turned Ayala's issue was that he didn't see Rosario as real competition. He airs his greivances to Hugo Savinovich and his glorious mullet until Invader hits the ring to give him a real challenge. The two are scheduled for a match that Saturday, and Ayala tries to blow him off on those grounds, but Invader isn't going anywhere, so they have at it. Meanwhile, Hugo consults with Puerto Rican Walt Frazier about whether or not this is all kosher.

I think this is actually my first time seeing Ayala. He's not someone I had much reason to actively seek out, since his reputation is shit, but he actually looked pretty damn good here. He was all big and mean and clubbery, and he laid his shots in nicely. This may have been an above average performance for him, but yeah, no complaints. Invader I've seen a handful of times before, once as an old man against Ray Gonzalez, once in an 80's WWF tag match against Roddy Piper and David Schultz. I don't think I ever gave him much credit before, possibly because...you know...the murder thing, and 80's WWF tags and matches as an old guy against a really talented worker in his prime are not really the places where you're going to overcome a lousy reputation. This is more of the kind of showcase where you can't really ignore the talent of the guys involved, and, well, Invader I is really talented. He's great as the super fired-up babyface brawler. He has the best battering ram I've ever seen. That's a spot that almost always looks stupid, but Ayala knocks Invader back, and Invader whips right back at him head-first at top speed, and it looks totally awesome. The match has a really great finishing stretch, starting with Ayala bashing Invader with the ringbell, and Invader doing some really great groggy selling. Ayala wails on him, but Invader hangs in there and makes his comeback, getting some ringbell comeuppance in exchange. The two continue to fight it out as the TV time limit expires, and I'd really like to see the match they had that Saturday.

Mascarita Dorada vs. Mini Psicosis (AAA, 5/19/12)
Requested by Grimmas

You know what, I'm gonna say it - The Imperial March? Not really a good choice for technico theme music. This is the kind of bold honesty that has made me so respected amongst my peers.

Anyway, this match is awesome. It's a pretty simple speed vs. power match, and both of these guys are really good in those those roles. Dorada (the current El Torito, for those of you who lost track of the Mascarita Doradas) is so ridiculously slick. He's not setting the bar low for himself, either. Over the course of the match, he goes for some pretty flashy high flying offense, and he executes it all perfectly. I think my favorite was the escape of the wheelbarrow into the springboard headbutt near the end. Yes, that's a thing that happened. Don't doubt that Dorada can make things like that happen. Mini Psicosis, meanwhile, is a really nasty little bruiser. He's quite a bit larger than Dorada, and they did fail to deliver the "larger mini mocks the smaller mini for being short" spot, which I always love in these matches, but he was still great overpowering Dorada, tossing him around the ring, and even busting out a nifty lariat at one point. Mini Histeria is seconding Mini Psicosis, and he does get involved a bit in the match. I didn't really have a problem with it, and it did lead to Octagoncito busting out an awesome dive on Dorada's behalf. There's a screwy finish, too, with Psicosis swiping Dorada's mask, but don't worry about that. This is a ton of fun.

Bob Esponja, Patricio Estrella, & Lady Maravilla vs. Buzz Lightyear, Sky Kid, & Chelly Rock (ACM, 5/12/13)
Requested by Tim Evans

Are ya ready, kids?

You know, I've seen a lot of things in professional wrestling over the years, and I think I can safely say...this is one of them. Lady Maravilla and Chelly (or Shelly...Cubs Fan says "Chelly", so I'm going with that) Rock start this out. They're not that bad. They're not that good. They're not that interesting. Look, we all know what we came here to see: Spongebob Squarepants and Buzz Lightyear throwing down. These women and their perfunctory matwork are just getting in my way. Maybe if Maravilla were dressed as Sandy and Chelly were dressed as Jessie, but as is, no dice. Really, even Sky Kid looks out of place here. You're telling me you couldn't rustle up some cowboy gear for this guy? Plus, I figure once you have your Toy Story trio established, they're set up pretty naturally for a mascara contra mascara match with Trio Fantasia, which I assume is the ideal career trajectory for everyone in this. Anyway, Sky Kid and Patricio have a pretty spirited exchange, but the technicos take the fall before Bob and Buzz can mix it up. Primear Caida ended so fast I thought I was watching CMLL.

Second fall opens up giving me exactly what I wanted. Buzz decks Spongebob with a slap across the mouth. He has a pretty nasty forearm, too. Buzz Lightyear is kind of a crowbar, which I wouldn't necessarily have guessed from the movies. This fall stretches it's legs a bit more, and it's mostly built around a rudo beatdown. At one point, Spongebob gets fouled after getting hit not where the wrestler's crotch actually is, but where it would be on the baggy costume he's wearing (though if we're being that technical, Spongebob is an asexual being who reproduces via budding and should be invulnerable to foules, but I think I'm gonna let that slide). Buzz takes the fall for his team with a top rope splash, presumably after shouting "Hasta el infinito y más allá!" to the crowd.

So in the tercera caida...you know, should I even bring up the fact that the costumed characters are not the most mechanically sound wrestlers you'll ever see? Because on one hand, I probably should, but on the other hand, does it really matter? This is a match that very much works upon the dancing bear principle - that is, the marvel is not that the bear dances well, but that the bear dances at all. This isn't a great match by any means, and the talents on display here won't make you for get Los Thundercats or some of the better wrestling Ninja Turtles, but if you ever wanted to see Buzz Lightyear and Patrick Star in a dive train - and you know you wanted to see that - this match definitely delivers.

Kengo Mashimo vs. Hiro Tonai (K-Dojo, 9/14/14)
Requested by Brandon-E

Well, if we're going to bring back All-Request Friday Nights, we've got to bring back that old staple, the modern puro match that I kinda dread watching, but that YOU requested, so I'm gonna suck it up and review it. Besides, watching things from outside my comfort zone is how I expand my horizons as a fan, and one of the things I like about doing this is that it's a great excuse to watch stuff that I never would've watched otherwise. On the other hand, Kaientai Dojo burns me pretty much every time I've ever watched it, so I'm apprehensive here. That said, if there's one guy who might deliver in that setting against all odds...well, it's TAKA Michinoku. But if there's ANOTHER guy who might deliver in that setting against all odds, I'd wager that it's Kengo Mashimo, the ace of K-Dojo and certainly the best trainee they've ever produced. He's a guy I took notice of in 2010 when he started hanging out with the FUTEN crew outside of his home promotion, but that never seemed to translate to any swell of quality in it, possibly because he couldn't find an opponent in K-Dojo half as competent as Takahiro Oba. He seems to try when I watch him, but usually, his opponent lets him down, so I really want to believe in this Hiro Tonai character right now. He's wearing Kuniaki Kobayashi's pants. That's a good start.

So I place my faith in Tonai, and is it rewarded? Well, yes, actually, and from pretty early on in the match, too, when he crosses Mashimo up during a straightforward feeling out section with a nifty cradle and a shining wizard. From there, he tries to press the advantage, but Mashimo cuts him off on the second rope and dropping his leg on the turnbuckle. Most of the first half is built around Mashimo working Tonai's leg, and while it isn't as violent as his FUTEN stuff (how could it be?), he still makes for a great bully, kicking and stomping the shit out of his leg and then working him over on the mat with submission holds once he's been grounded. He starts daring Tonai to take shots at him, and I know Mashimo already had a run with New Japan as part of Suzuki-gun, but watching this, I really wish they'd bring him back for something a bit more substantial, because he's a guy who does a lot of what we think of as the "strong style" routine better than most of the hyped New Japan guys. He's actually kinda reminiscint of Tomohiro Ishii in that respect, though he's obviously not on that level as a talent. Anyway, this backfires on him, and Tonai starts to fight back, injuring Mashimo's arm in the process. Tonai's comeback is spirited, though he does seem to be blowing off the leg selling a bit too much at times. I've seen much worse, though, and it wasn't enough to take me out of the match, though I could see some people disagreeing with me on that. Then again, I could see some people thinking his selling was perfectly fine, too, so whatever. Just thought you should know that was there and that I docked a few points from the match because of it. Still, there's too much good here for me to let that get me down. I totally dug the stretch run, which had some really tight and intense work from both guys, including that most elusive of creatures in modern puro: the back-and-forth strike exchange that felt like it was actually earned by the match, and not just thrown because it's supposed to be there to make the match seem more epic than it actually is. I can't guarantee this will be to everyone's taste, but fuck it, it was to mine. Give it a look. You may be surprised.

Alexander Otsuka vs. Takashi Sugiura (Z1, 4/18/01)
Requested by Curt McGirt

Hey, my first week back, and I go five for five with matches that I actually like! I haven't watched this match in years, but really, what are the odds of it not holding up? It's an Alexander Otsuka match. In my years as a fan, I've seen wrestlers who are better than Alexander Otsuka, but I've seen very few who are more fun than Alexander Otsuka. Alexander Otsuka is professional wrestling comfort food - a man proficient in a wide array of styles, and who will gladly demonstrate all of them during a single match for your amusement. Wrestling is many things to many people, but more than anything else, it's a good time, and there ain't no party like an Alexander Otsuka party.

Sugiura had only been wrestling for a few months at this point, but he was already showing a ton of promise here. I can't say he ever became a huge favorite of mine, but I always liked him well enough, and he has some very strong performances under his belt. In this match, he makes good use of his amateur background, grappling with Otsuka early and throwing him around later on. Always something I appreciate with amateurs-turned-pro.

Then, about halfway through the match, Otsuka hauls off and headbutts Sugiura, busting himself open hardway in the process, which looks just nasty. It gets even nastier as the match goes on, probably due in no small part to the fact that they keep trading headbutts for a while after that. Again, Otsuka is not afraid to just change the style of the match on a dime if he feels like it, and what's great is that it never feels wrong or out of place. It feels like a guy with a bottomless bag of tricks who likes to keep his opponents - and the audience - guessing, and it's a joy to watch every time. And just as seamlessly, he follows up a headbutt by slipping behind Sugiura and German suplexing him, transitiong to the "hosses throwing each other around" segment of the match. Beautiful.

These two guys actually wrestled each other again this past November at a Dradition show in what I'm told was billed as a rematch of this bout. I don't know if that made tape, as Otsuka's matches rarely do these days. That's a real pity. Still, watching this match does make me wanna go find what little recent Otsuka is available. The sun always shines a little brighter when that man steps into the ring, and brighter still when I can actually see it.

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Saturday Night Digging in the Crates

We take a trip to the turn of the century for some nasty inter-promotional nastiness

Shinya Hashimoto/Tadao Yasuda vs. Tamon Honda/Masao Inoue Zero-One 04/18/01 



Man was this fucking great. Z1 v. NOAH so it had the kind of crazy heat those matches have. Both Inoue and Honda are totally fired up going at Hash and Yasuda at full speed. This was the best I have ever seen Yasuda look, as he was way stiffer then I had seen him, including a great punch to the throat on Inoue. Honda looked great here too with some really cool exchanges with Hashimoto, including cracking him with a headbutt and locking in some nasty Rolling Olympic Hells. Finish was awesome with Hash mangling Inoue's shoulder with chops and armlocks, so the ref had to stop it.

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Yoshiaki Fujiwara Cometh, and They Shall Seek Peace, And There Shall Be None

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Kana v. Yuki Ishikawa/Carlos Amano Kana Pro 1/10/11-EPIC

A total out of nowhere awesome match. I have very little interest in current Joshi, I haven't seen Carlos Amano in years and I don't think I had ever seen Kana, but they were just killing it in this match. Their early grappling was very slick, with some really nasty ankle locks and armbar transitions. Very good stuff, as intricate and interesting as that kind of shoot mat work gets. Ishikawa and Fujiwara click together like puzzle pieces. There is a great moment where Fujiwara tags in and slaps Ishikawa in the mouth, and when Ishikawa tries to respond Fujiwara grabs his arm and wrenches in the namesake armbar. After watching and reviewing this many Fujiwara matches it is great that he still breaks out new neat shit. As good as everyone else is, this was the Ishikawa show. Every once in a while Ishikawa shows up on DVD or youtube and reminds you he is the best wrestler in the world. Starting out he is such a nasty fucker, smacking around Kana like Billy Campbell in Enough. However Kana fires back and his selling is so good that by the end we have a full on epic Ishikawa v. Ikeda finish with the role of Daisuke Ikeda played by a 97 pound girl. Kana is throwing bombs and Ishikawa is desperately fighting back. Excellent match as good as the best stuff from 2011.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Yoshikazu Yokoyama Zero-One 8/27/11-FUN

Yokoyama is a young guy testing himself against the wily veteran. This a story we have seen before and Fujiwara is great at working. He does a bunch of very cool counters, including a nice use of a crucifix and an ankle pick reversal out of an armbar. He also uncorked a nasty headbutt. Yokoyama didn't show me a ton although he was a fine guy getting worker over by Fujiwara. Worth your four minutes to watch

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA

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Yoshiaki Fujiwara Sustains the Humble, But Casts the Wicked To The Ground

Yoshiaki Fujiawara v. Joe Malenko PWFG 6/1/93-EPIC

PAS: This was so much fun, just a pair of true maestros pulling pushing and twisting each other until someone gives. This wasn't an exchange of holds, it was a constant battle by both men to find some advantage or defense. This was really a Malenko show, as he controlled with great takedowns, and constant attacking, with Fujiwara really focused on defense. Of course Fujiwara is the greatest defensive pro-wrestler of all time, so the defense stuff ruled.

TKG: This was a Malenko show. My favorite thing that he did was use his knee and shin as simple machine, constantly pushing it against stuff to act as a lever, inclined plane or wedge to force Fujiwara to move one body part or another, worlds most violent physics demonstration.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Daisuke Ikeda v. Ricky Fuji/Hitsakatsu Ooya FMW 5/5/95-FUN

This is for the FMW tag belts, and was on the undercard of one of the big FMW 5/5 shows. There was a bunch of stuff I enjoyed here, Fujiwara and Ikeda are both bleeding and do a good job of getting the crowd behind them. We get to see Ikeda kick some folks really hard, including a spin kick right to Fuji's face which looked like it chicleted his teeth. The finish had Fujiwara whipping out flash armbars, including catching Fuji off the top. Still lots of the match had the FMW team beating on Fujiwara and Ikeda, and there was nothing compelling about it. Lots of weak forearms and stomps, you are going to have to hit both guys way harder then that to have me buy into it.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Shinya Hashimoto/Naoya Ogawa v. Tom Howard/The Predator/Steve Corino Zero-One 5/19/02-GREAT

A match which ends up on the low side of great, but had enough stuff I enjoyed to push it over the top. This is part of the big UPW/NWA v. Zero One feud which lots of times came off as a giant money mark fantasy for Fred Rubenstien and Rick Bassman. This did have heel ref shit and a post match brawl with Mr. Fred throwing powder, but for the most part it was focused in the ring. Fujiwara had some cool flash submissions and got in his ring bolt comedy spot, but the star of this match was Hashimoto. The gaijin team is pretty limited, but Hash had some excellent battle of the titans spots with all of them. I especially love his work with Howard, who is someone I am really starting to dig while watching all of this Zero One. I loved how he wasted Hashimoto with a superkick after suckering him in with his hands behind the back gimmick. Finish had some cool OH Gun combo moves including a nasty STO/German Suplex. Cool stuff.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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Fear Not For the Future, Weep Not for Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Antonio Inoki v. Dick Murdoch/Masked Superstar NJ 11/24/86- FUN

This was from the 1986 tag league. It is a fine little match which really has some excellent Fujiwara v. Murdoch exchanges. Both guys are such expressive wrestlers, that it is a treat to watch them work simple stuff. There is about 2 minutes of really nice brawling, Fujiwara backs Murdoch into a corner and unloads with one of his super fast combos, leading Murdoch to do a big spit take and a great bite a lemon face. Murdoch fires back with a couple of headlock punches right to Fujiwara's nose, which leads Fujiwara to grimace and adjust his nose to see if it is broken. Really simple stuff elevated to greatness by amazing performers. Match itself isn't much, Inoki had a tendency to take some punishment in a match, just to shrug it off and pin the guy. It isn't even like he Hulks up, he just decides he has had enough and perfunctorily finishes someone, he does that here and it hurts the match.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Johnny Barrett PWFG 3/4/91-GREAT

Barrett is an early 90's Florida indy worker who was an early DDP tag partner and feuded with the Nasty Boys. Somehow he ended up in UWF2 working as a Greco guy. All of his earliest UWF matches are filled with 3 Stooges style selling and dropkicks, so of course I loved them. Fujiwara of course is fucking Yoshiaki Fujiwara. This was as great as I was hoping it would be, although for different reasons. By 1991 Barrett had gotten the hang of working the style and is actually a really great shootstyle monster, kind of like Gary Albright with takedowns instead of suplexes.

Fujiwara really puts him over great here, as they exchange big shots, including Fujiwara's awesome shootstyle headbutt, which is completely different from his pro-style headbutt . His Pro-style headbutt has him grab the hair and really rare back, the kind of showy headbutt that plays to the back row. The shootstyle headbutt is more like a ram, he bends his knees and drives the top of his head right into either the jaw or the temple of his opponent. It is so different from his pro-style headbutt, that it always looks reckless and potatoey. It really looked like he broke Barrett's jaw. The finish was awesome, Barrett is on top, and tries to maneuver for a cross armbreaker, he slips while trying to apply it, and Fujiwara pounces, grabbing his ankle and sinking in a deep ankle lock for the tap. It actual looked like Barrett blew the spot and Fujiwara just went with, although it might have been intentional. Fujiwara is an amazing defensive wrestler, and this was just a brilliant reaction spot.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Shinya Hashimoto v. Daisuke Ikeda/Takashu Sugiara Zero-One 9/15/01-FUN
Slightly disappointing, as on paper I was totally amped to see Daisuke Ikeda match up with both Fujiwara and Hash. There was a nice exchange or two, but this match was focused on Sugiara. They basic story was pretty cool, Sugiara is this beast of an athlete who is still pretty green at pro wrestling. So he has his moments of explosiveness and domination, but he goes to the well a little too often and leaves himself open to counters from the two Maestros. There is this great spot where he hits a big takedown on Hashimoto and ground and pounds him. When they get back to their feet he tries again and Hash drills him with a nasty kick, which I though may have dislocated his shoulder. Fujiwara is able to catch him sleeping a couple of times too, countering a mount with a kneebar, and a front face lock with a Fujiwara armbar. Definitely some cool shit, but it was very frustrating watching Daisuke Ikeda hang out on the ring apron while Sugiara is in the ring.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA

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FUJIWARA OF THE DAY #3

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Kintaro Kanemura ZERO-ONE 9/1/03

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. It really makes me want to get a hold of all of his FMW. 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.

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