Your all-time favourite Japanese wrestler?

[Guest The Rising Star]

Antonio Inoki

Tatsumi Fujinami

Riki Chosyu

Keiji Muto

Masahiro Chono

Mitsuharu Misawa

Kenta Kobashi

Toshiaki Kawada

Akira Taue

Jumbo Tsoruta

Genishiro Tenryu

Giant Baba

[Guest DeathBecomesYou]

No Satoshi Kojima? Out of that list i'll say Chono

[Nevermortal 0]

I always enjoyed Kawada, so Kawada it is.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Just to add some junior fun in:

 

Jushin "Thunder" Liger

Koji Kanemoto

Shinjiro Ohtani

Ultimo Dragon

Great Sasuke

Minoru Tanaka

[Guest DeathBecomesYou]

Out of the juniors, Ohtani

[Guest Jimbo]

Kawada 'n Ohtani.

[J.B. Buzzkill 0]

Juniors: Lyger, Sasuke, Ohtani, and Ultimo

Heavies: Kobashi, Kawada, Nagata

[Guest Black Tiger]

Kawada 'n Ohtani.

Good match, but Kawada dragged it down by not selling his leg after Ohtani was destroying it. Ohtani was a total prick and even did Kawada's shinny kicks to piss him off, Kawada responded by doing the half crab where he stepped on Ohtani's head, and did Ohtani's face scrapes while he had the crab on

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

I liked Juniors more than Heavy's so I'll vote for Jushin Liger with Ultimo Dragon in second.

[Guest Indikator]

Jumbo Tsuruta

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Heavyweights:Kawada, Jumbo, Kobashi, Misawa

 

Jr's:Dynamite, Tiger Mask I, Liger, Ultimo,Ohtani

[theintensifier 0]

Kawada, Kobashi, AKiyama, Misawa, Gen'ichiro

 

Liger, Hart, Pegasus Kid, Sasuke, Black Tiger II, Ohtani

[Guest JebusNassedar]

For me, my favorite Japanese wrestler is Shinjiro Ohtani, both as a junior, and a heavyweight.

 

But for heavyweights on the list, I vote for Keiji Mutoh, simply on account of his work as The Great Muta. Not Kokushi Muto in AJPW, but Great Muta. A truly classic character, with tremendous skills.

[Guest BAR]

Heavyweight: Toshiaki Kawada

Junior: The Dynamite Kid

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Re: Juniors

 

No love for Hakushi?

[Guest sean pyro]

No love for Hakushi?

[Use Your Illusion 0]

Keiji Mutoh > You

[Pegasus Kid 0]

Re: Juniors

 

No love for Hakushi?

Shinzaki is a bit too... um... inconsistent?

 

Heavyweight = Kobashi

 

Junior = The Bitchmaster.

[Guest Coffey]

It has to be Misawa for me. Only person who comes close is Kawada.

[Guest Jimbo]

Kawada 'n Ohtani.

Good match, but Kawada dragged it down by not selling his leg after Ohtani was destroying it. Ohtani was a total prick and even did Kawada's shinny kicks to piss him off, Kawada responded by doing the half crab where he stepped on Ohtani's head, and did Ohtani's face scrapes while he had the crab on

Eh, I didn't really like it. I thought it would be awesome and had high hopes for it...but it just didn't deliver. Kawada was lazy and they never seemed to "get into it" ya might say.

[Guest Corino 1000]

Eh, out of your list I would say Kawada.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Junior: The Dynamite Kid

I'm guessing that when Rising Star made this topic, he meant "Japanese" to mean "Japanese wrestlers" not "Wrestlers who worked in Japan." If it were the ladder, I'm sure he would have included non-Japanese in his list of wrestlers to chose from.

 

As for the topic, my favorite Japanese, Male, Heavyweight Wrestler is Nobuhiko Takada. He's not on the list of wrestlers to chose from, but he fits the criteria, so whatever.

 

One of the big reasons that Takada is my favorite is that he's one of the only true babyfaces that has gotten me to rally behind him. I think heels, or villains, are usually more fascinating characters in general, be it in wrestling, literature, or film, because babyfaces often risk being "too good" and hard to relate to. A really effective babyface is something that doesn't come along too often, and Takada was one of those.

 

It's also worth mentioning that Takada wasn't just any old babyface, but *the* babyface and top star in an incredibly popular promotion. He was "The Man" just as Baba, Inoki, Jumbo, etc. had been in their respective promotions. Takada exuded this air of confidence and determination that gives you feeling that he doesn't have to convince anyone how good he is; he knows how good he is, and he can prove it.

 

Takada has a large body of high-end work, lasting from the mid eighties to the mid nineties, with a wide variety of opponents, which included Kazuo Yamazaki, Shiro Koshinaka, Keji Mutoh, Akira Maeda, Bob Backlund, Gary Albright, Vader, Naoki Sano, Kiyoshi Tamura, and Shinya Hashimoto. He could work great NJ juniors matches opposite Hase, Yamada, and Koshinaka, but also worked great shoot style matches against Maeda, Yamazaki, and Backlund in UWF. Him carrying Albright in UWFi would age better if it wasn't overshadowed by Kawada/Albright, in which Kawada took hints from Takada in how to work with Garry. His matches with Vader were, up to that point, some of the best to come out of shoot style.

 

So yeah, Takada's my favorite. If anyone else wants to talk about *why* they picked their favorite is their favorite, feel free. It would probably make for better discussion than everyone just tossing out their favorites without talking about them.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Re: Juniors

 

No love for Hakushi? 

Shinzaki is a bit too... um... inconsistent?

That's putting it rather nicely. If we were to be honest, we'd probably put rank him close to Mutoh on the "careless and lazy" scale.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Ohtani or Kobashi. They can both bring the strikes, the submissions, the drama, the flying and the stiffness. Kobashi in particular ranks quite highly on my GOAT list.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I only bother with wrestling when it's an oddity sort of attraction anymore, so I'll go with Stolker Ichikawa.

[Rendclaw 0]

For me, my favorite Japanese wrestler is Shinjiro Ohtani, both as a junior, and a heavyweight.

 

But for heavyweights on the list, I vote for Keiji Mutoh, simply on account of his work as The Great Muta. Not Kokushi Muto in AJPW, but Great Muta. A truly classic character, with tremendous skills.

Liger has to be my favorite Japanese junior/lightweight, with Dynamite running a very close second..

 

Mutoh's work as the Great Muta can never be understated. Back in the 80s when I saw him in NWA up against Flair and the like, I simply could not believe some of the moves he was pulling off as I had never seen them before.. I only have limited access to some of his work in Japan, but what I have seen just makes me go wow.

 

Honorable mention to Shinya Hasimoto, the true Master of the DDT.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Mutoh's work in the nineties under the Muta was almost always slow, plodding, and aimless. Though Mutoh has always had a tendancy to be careless and lazy in general, his work as Muta was especially bad in this regard. Aside from his blood beath with Hase, almost all of Mutoh's great matches are without the face paint.

[Use Your Illusion 0]

I love Mutoh purely for the reason I love the Undertaker.

 

I used to love watching him as a kid, it's just one of those things.

 

UYI

[Guest The Winter Of My Discontent]

Anyone who is not Misawa. He bothers me.

[Guest FrigidSoul]

When Muta/Mutoh was on he was one of the best to grace the ring. It just sucks that every now and again he just didn't care about a certain match and turned Lazy Mutoh mode on.

 

Also where's the love for Hayabusa? Unless he was listed here under a name I don't recognise I can't believe he's being left out. The crazy bastard allowed people to throw him into electrified steelcages. He also had some good high flying skills.

 

For pure wrestling though I have to go with Liger, Ultimo Dragon, and Sasuke. I mean Sasuke fractured his skull and still continued to put up a good match.

 

Kind of random but who was it that wrestled with Sabu in Japan when Sabu broke his back? I think that guy deserves extra points for stuff shotting Sabu because Sabu tries pulling off a stupid spot which broke his own back.