The GAZE Project: 101 Greatest Unknowns

             (Written by jom)

    As I write this, one of the largest projects in the history of our sphere is only a few days away from reaching its conclusion. The fact that over 500 people ended up submitting ballots for GWE 2026 is a pretty astounding feat, regardless of how I may feel about some sects of the voter base or how the overall list is turning out. Lots of famed workers and kings of their eras are being given their rightful placements, and even a few lesser-appreciated or unexpected names are getting their time in the sun thanks to the efforts and agendas of their supporters.

    There are also a lot of people who never even had a chance of sniffing a spot on the list.

    This blog is focused on the lower indies of Japan, the scuzzy venues and short-lived promotions that have given guys you've never even conceptualized before regular bookings over the last three or four decades. As such, I've built a robust mental rolodex of no-name Japan workers, ranging from NJPW openers turned indie midcarders, to men whose careers have lived and died in the absolute dregs of the scene. A lot of those wrestlers are, in my opinion, at least pretty cool. Some of them go beyond that and actually stand as personal favorites. But none of them really had any shot of being brought up in GWE conversations, and, therefore, would not be getting any of the new-found attention some of their contemporaries are receiving.

    I'm hoping to change that with this project. At the very least, I'm hoping for one or two new sets of eyes to give some of these wrestlers a shot. To take a gander at their wrestling. To give them a GAZE, if you will.

    The GAZE Project comes from the combined efforts of myself and many of my friends (most notably Chris, H, Joshie, and Ciel), who deliberated on people to include through text before sitting in two separate VCs to determine the ranking of the list. The process would have been infinitely less fun and fruitful without their help (I love my friends <3). There have been a handful of changes to the list since then, but it remains largely the same as it was when that second voice call ended.

    The four set rules of the GAZE Project are relatively simple. Any wrestlers nominated for GWE are automatically eliminated (apologies to Super Rider and Taro Yamada, among others). Similarly, any wrestlers with a displayed average rating on CM are eliminated, along with wrestlers that have more than three matchguide entries with a displayed average. Finally, wrestlers with more than 5 consecutive years spent in a major organization are also left out of consideration, to nullify any NJPW/AJPW lifers that would otherwise qualify because of lesser western exposure. All of this was done to whittle down the pool to only wrestlers that have received little to no praise in english-speaking circles. Are some wrestlers more unknown than others? Certainly, but the general hope is that even if you do know some of the names here, you at least know enough to understand why they belong.

    With those rules in mind, we assembled a list of the 101 greatest lesser-known wrestlers Japan has ever had to offer. A smorgasbord of phantom shooters and grunge technicians, deathmatchers maiming themselves for half-empty dojos, and even a solid handful of wrestlers with moments in the sun, only to then be completely forgotten and buried in the history books. To be clear, I love a lot of these guys, and I have at least some level of appreciation for every single one. The irony ends where the list begins. I'm too deep in this scene to not genuinely enjoy it, and I truly believe their work is worth checking out if any part of my write-ups strike your fancy. 

    This is easily the most nerdy loser ass shit I have ever done, and I had a great time doing it. I hope you enjoy going through the list.

HONORABLE MENTIONS (aka the sick-ass names tier)

326, Big Bear, Bull Armor TAKUYA, Amigo Suzuki, Super Judist, Stun Gun Takamura, Big Morohashi, Nise Onita, Tiger Shark, & ALL Mighty Inoue

101) JOM Taro

    Obvious bias aside, JOM Taro is kind of the quintessential sleaze shooter to me. He looks like he works at the local gas station and possesses a generally bad MMA record, but his kicks land with enough force to kill a small elephant, and he's always been game to do pretty much everything offered to him, from actual shoot fights to deathmatches. He's fun for his entire career, but especially near the tail-end when he's in a few of the bloodiest Wallabee matches ever. Bonus points for having the greatest nickname ever, "Lifetime Red Card".

MATCH RECS:
JOM Taro vs. Takashi Sasaki (Great Pro 06/22/2009)
JOM Taro vs. Shigehiro Irie (DDT/Wallabee 07/01/2012)
JOM Taro & TORU vs. KEITA in THE House & Great Zako (Wallabee 08/25/2019) 

100) KENSHIN

    A prime example for the argument that good workers borrow and great workers steal. KENSHIN didn't gradually morph into a Kensuke Sasaki clone - he was one from the very start, even back in the 90s and early 00s when he worked as Issei Fujisawa. Like many of the homage workers before and after him, KENSHIN went above and beyond in his imitation, copying not only Sasaki's moves but his mannerisms, down to the most minute details. You know exactly what he's going to give you every time, and more often than not, that shit ruled.

MATCH RECS:
Issei Fujisawa & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Thanomsak Toba & Takashi Sasaki (DDT 09/06/2001)
KENSHIN & Riki Senshu vs. HERO! & KUDO (DDT 01/30/2005)
KENSHIN vs. Shun Kasagi (RIKI OFFICE 03/21/2006)

99) SATOSHI

    One of the many forgotten Kurisu trainees, SATOSHI's a pretty great veteran figure in the Osaka indie scene. He's easily one of the standouts from when I bought a bunch of K-WEST DVDs, and he's continued to be a very solid hand everywhere else I've seen him work. He's the kind of guy who would do very well in a Kansai Mutoha, if such a thing ever even had a chance of existing. He's also got one of the best dropkicks I've ever seen, always executed like his legs are spring-loaded and always landing with a pretty nasty smack. Of the many names I see on the back of Shiratori DVDs, SATOSHI's is one that always puts a smile on my face.

MATCH RECS:
SATOSHI vs. Michio Kageyama (K-WEST 01/21/2010)
SATOSHI vs. OLA (K-WEST 02/18/2010)
SATOSHI vs. Dyna Mido (Bukotsu 03/25/2012)

98) Hidetomo Egawa

    Super nifty C-tier UWFi midcarder type guy. Egawa bounced around a lot of places in the 90s, starting in Oriental Pro as a trainee before ending up in at least two other dojos and falling into Orihara's Mobius crew. He always slotted in really well with the fighters in IWA Japan and WAR, responding to mostly crowbar-type violence with big suplexes and shoot kicks. If he had worked in Battlarts as his primary stomping ground rather than only appearing there a few times, I think we'd probably be talking about him more often.

MATCH RECS:
Hidetomo Egawa vs. Yuji Kito (IWA Japan 08/08/1997)
Hidetomo Egawa & Masao Orihara vs. Yuji Yasuraoka & Tomohiro Ishii (WAR 11/24/1997)
Hidetomo Egawa vs. Katsumi Usuda (Battlarts 04/19/1998)

97) Ryoji Nagaya

    As a big fan of both FU*CK! and Mumeijuku, let me tell you, it is WILD to watch the pure backyard car crash known as Killer Master turn into Mumei's fresh new prospect Ryoji Nagaya. You'd think they're two separate people entirely save for Nagaya continuing to do the standing SSP even as a black trunks young boy. I love both faces of Nagaya though, as both are shades of eternal suffering, albeit on two opposite sides of the spectrum. Who else can say they've been both dropped on their head by MASADA and grapplefucked by Hiroshi Watanabe? Nagaya vanished when the pandemic began, and I hope he's doing well.

MATCH RECS:
Killer Master & The Zack vs. Kenji Fukimoto & Ken Ohka (FU*CK! 07/21/2008)
Ryoji Nagaya vs. Taro Yamada (Mumeijuku 01/16/2011)
Kirisaru vs. Cosmo Soldier (Jishidan 04/16/2017)

96) Naoki Kimura

    U-STYLE's resident jobber. Naoki Kimura is quite possibly the scuzziest-looking person to ever work for a notable shoot style group, covered in incredibly random tattoos and making his entrances wearing BALZAC and MAD CAPSULE MARKETS shirts. He's also the closest thing U-STYLE ever had to a mad dog, rushing into his fights with tons of palm strikes and shitty little leg kicks to try and set up for ground game. Of the nine fights he had in his wrestling career, only one ended in a win, and that was Kimura passing the torch to new U-STYLE jobber Hajime Moriyama before exiting the wrestling world entirely. Secretly, he's one of my top five favorite U-STYLE regulars, and I wish we got so much more from him.

MATCH RECS:
Naoki Kimura vs. Kyosuke Sasaki (U-STYLE 10/06/2003)
Naoki Kimura vs. Hiroyuki Ito (U-STYLE 04/28/2004)
Naoki Kimura vs. Hajime Moriyama (U-STYLE 08/07/2004)

95) Yuzuru Saito

    Saito really had the world in his hands. A rookie with a Katsuyori Shibata base model and a Fujita Hayato brain pattern. Of ZERO1's ill-fated young guy crop of the era, Saito was my personal favorite, which makes his overall short career hurt that much more. He had the makings of a real killer, and for the last few months of his career, he got to show that, but it just wasn't meant to be thanks to Saito being an injury magnet. In a just world, Saito would be the next person to recieve the Edge/Mysterio/Naito stem cell treatment.

MATCH RECS:
Yuzuru Saito & Osamu Namiguchi vs. Munenori Sawa & Yusaku Obata (ZERO1 02/27/2009)
Yuzuru Saito vs. Rikiya Fudo (ZERO1 01/27/2010)
Yuzuru Saito vs. Shota Takanishi (ZERO1 08/04/2010)

94) 801 Kenichi

    801 Kenichi is clunky and sluggish, and that's exactly how he should be. I admittedly love Kenichi and think all of his faults are part of what makes him awesome. He's a big hammer in the land of precise weaponry that is Sportiva, contrasting the slick shooters and delicate grapplers with pure shoulder-tackling meatheadedness. His suplexes are genuinely great too, almost Angle-esque in execution and usually built towards in interesting ways. I also like when he's the weird laughing Rancid fan "Sayonara Zecho Sensei" in XGF and FU*CK!. That's a good gimmick right there.

MATCH RECS:
801 Kenichi vs. Yusaku Ito (Sportiva 12/23/2020)
Sayonara Zecho Sensei vs. Minoru Kido (XGF 01/01/2022)
801 Kenichi vs. Yujiro Yamamoto (BAP 04/03/2022)

93) Yoshihisa Mio

    Shoutout Ciel. We have very little Mio footage. He's not the least visible person on this list, but he's certainly in the top 5. And yet what we do have is undeniable. Yoshihisa Mio is a monster of a worker. He's a fantastic grappler and an incredible kicker, with a few of the best kicks I have ever seen in wrestling in general. He's also so intense and knows just how to milk every moment for as much as he can get out of it. The most we have of him is his work as El Hornet over the last few years, and that work is certainly fun, but I think that if we got our hands on more of the SECRET BASE and Kacho Fugetsu footage, we'd be talking about Mio landing much higher on this list.

MATCH RECS:
Yoshihisa Mio vs. Kotaro Nasu (SECRET BASE 02/08/2015)
Yoshihisa Mio vs. Masao Ando (GENTEN 04/19/2015)
El Hornet vs. FUMA (Donan Ring 03/31/2019)

92) Masayuki Mineno

    We have three Masayuki Mineno matches. That's it. He was a CAPTURE guy in the 2000s, and the only 2000s CAPTURE we have are the three tapes from a local Kyushu station. And yet, with just three matches, I feel pretty comfortable saying that Masayuki Mineno was a prodigy of a shooter. Mineno was a sniper, finding small targets to exact great violence upon with some of the nastiest and most precise kicks I've seen, along with some super sick submission work. I'm sure that if we ever get more of the AQ Station broadcasts (of which there were many I have recently learned), we'll all be singing the praises of Mineno.

MATCH RECS:
Masayuki Mineno vs. Jota (CAPTURE 10/05/2002)
Masayuki Mineno & Nobuyuki Kurashima vs. Koki Kitahara & Jota (CAPTURE 12/08/2002)
Masayuki Mineno vs. Jota (CAPTURE 03/08/2003)

91) Young Sammy

    Sammy is one of those guys that my group of friends got very attached to during the RIKI OFFICE watch. Like many of the high-flyers of that scene, Sammy is a destruction derby with two legs, flinging himself around with reckless abandon, but what sets Sammy apart is just how crisp his execution is. He's so snappy with all of his movements, partially helped by just how jittery he is in his regular motions but also assisted by a clear idolization of Keiji Muto. Every Young Sammy match leaves you with at least one spot that you'll be thinking about on and off for the next week.

MATCH RECS:
Young Sammy, Konaka, & Shigeru Takagi vs. Hiryuu, Kenji Yoshioka, & Hiroaki Moriya (LEAVE HOME 08/22/2004)
Young Sammy vs. Perseus Jr. (FU*CK! 04/03/2005)
Young Sammy, The Zack, & Kenichi Aasakawa vs. Taisho, Fucking Machine, & Tommy The Tiger (GUYZ 01/07/2007)

90) Kyoshiro Suizenji

    Awesome local all-rounder that inexplicably got to work the Tokyo Dome. Post-exodus AJPW was a desperate time, and Suizenji was one of the two West Japan imports who got to work the undercards while they figured shit out (more on the other one later). Luckily, AJPW struck gold with both of their sleazy imports, and Suizenji got to have a solid handful of awesome matches before retiring from the business only a few months into his AJPW stint. Similar to Mio, we barely have any Suizenji footage, but everything we do have portrays a guy who was pretty damn talented at everything and probably deserved some spotlight earlier into his career.

MATCH RECS:
Kyoshiro Suizenji vs. Jeff Mangles vs. Yuto Aijima vs. Asian Cougar (Sekai 06/05/1999)
Kyoshiro Suizenji vs. Shigeo Okumura (AJPW 01/07/2001)
Kyoshiro Suizenji vs. Yuto Aijima (AJPW 04/14/2001)

89) Urban Ken

    Concluding the Chris Yeelord section of the list with one of our shared agendas, and also the first man to ever be written about on this blog! Urban Ken was such a beast, an adequate shooter who focused his efforts on being a cannonball of a man with nasty spears and headbutts. Even considering his small stature, he would've been a great addition to any big bruiser division of the time, and every instance of him fighting Sekimoto-types in his short career kicks ass. The brightest stars burn out the fastest I suppose.

MATCH RECS:
Urban Ken vs. Daijiro Matsui (Battlarts 11/26/2000)
Urban Ken vs. Naoyuki Taira (Battlarts 01/28/2001)
Urban Ken vs. Yoshihito Sasaki (FMW 03/13/2001)

88) Junpuku Yamamoto

    Super fun high-energy Kurisu trainee turned screaming old man. Well, Junpuku has always been screaming. It's a common trait for all the Kurisu trainees to be really loud, but Junpuku is definitely the loudest. Anyways, he's awesome in all the J2K and FU*CK! footage of him we have, taking a lot of Takao Omori's moveset and combining it with a gnarly spear that regularly sent people (mostly Kenji Fukimoto) hurtling straight onto their necks. Nowadays, he's a Kobe scene regular, terrorizing people in KOBE Meriken and NPW, still having the odd awesome match.

MATCH RECS:
Junpuku Yamamoto vs. Ryo Tamiyasu (J2K 09/23/2003)
Junpuku Yamamoto & Kenji Fukimoto vs. Takuya Fujiwara & Yoshihiro Kawaguchi (J2K 01/17/2016)
Junpuku vs. Mikiya Sasaki (NPW 02/11/2026)

87) SHINOBI

    A few years back, I created a website called "Good Luck to the Japanese Luchadores!", or GL2JL for short. It probably doesn't surprise you to know that I'm a mark for reverse import indie guys, and SHINOBI is a real standout among the crowd. He has an awesome look, cool llaves, and half of his dives look like they're on the verge of self-destructing. He's got his rough spots, but most SHINOBI matches I have seen have been undeniably fun, and he's always someone I'm happy to check out.

MATCH RECS:
SHINOBI vs. Arkangel de la Muerte (CMLL Japan 12/13/1997)
SHINOBI vs. Arkangel de la Muerte (Sekai 06/06/1999)
SHINOBI vs. Arkangel de la Muerte (CMLL Japan 02/08/2000)

86) Kuniyoshi Wada

    The only WJ trainee to survive the dojo, even if whatever they did to him only made him stick around full-time for a few years. Wada is pretty blatantly a Choshu trainee, as his bread and butter are the basics of the game, and god damn does Wada know his basics. He's a slam monster and stiff striker, game to eat punishment and respond back tenfold. It shocks me that he was never given a chance to work regularly in a place like BJW or Z1, because he would've been right at home fighting it out with the bruisers there. If you're looking for the bare essentials, you can't go wrong with Wada.

MATCH RECS:
Kuniyoshi Wada vs. Takashi Uwano (Lock Up 02/04/2007)
Kuniyoshi Wada vs. Yusaku Obata (Lock Up 05/18/2008)
Kuniyoshi Wada vs. Hikaru Sato (RJPW 09/11/2009)

85) Akifumi Saito

    Spiritually, the same guy as Wada, just on a completely different path. Saito went down the Sayama trek and came out the other end as a pretty nice gangly shooter, completely with nasty performances in Battlarts and Ganko Pro where he could flex the Sayama training. Saito also consistently performed near the top level on RJPW shows, being one of the few regulars who actually seemed interested in trying to have good matches. I have very little to say about Saito other than that. He's a very solid black kickpads dickhead, one that more than held his own against his peers and produced a good handful of great matches.

MATCH RECS:
Akifumi Saito vs. Katsumi Usuda (Battlarts 12/06/2009)
Akifumi Saito vs. Yujiro Yamamoto (RJPW 07/21/2011)
Akifumi Saito vs. Tiger Shark (RJPW 09/21/2012)

84) Dyna Mido

    Another familiar name from the RIKI OFFICE journey. Dyna Mido is a pretty great spitfire worker, the kind of guy that really never stays down and keeps trying to fly at you full-force with elbows and chops and whatever else he can put together. He's also a progenitor of the modern Mat Pro scene, which, depending on who you are, is either great or awful. I enjoy the no-ring stuff a good bit, so I deeply appreciate his contributions there. One of the most consistent workers in the scene, a consistency he's maintained for the entirety of his career.

MATCH RECS:
Dyna Mido vs. Hideaki Sumi (RIKI OFFICE 07/31/2011)
Dyna Mido & Southern Cross vs. Yuki Tanaka & Tadanobu Fujisawa (H.EVolution 03/10/2012)
Dyna Mido & Kamui vs. Masao Ando & Daisuke Masaoka (Amagasaki 04/23/2016)

83) KUROKAGE

    Back to back OFFICE guys, my heart is full. KUROKAGE (sometimes all caps, sometimes not) is pretty much the typical scum brawler for the scene, hanging out with his fellow foulers (especially Diablo) and causing a ruckus wherever he goes. Admittedly, KUROKAGE tends to not make much of an impact with his own work, but I appreciate it for what it truly does: make everyone else he wrestles look better. KUROKAGE is a roadblock for other guys to overcome, and he serves that role perfectly wherever he's at.

MATCH RECS:
Kurokage & Diablo vs. Souther & Yuji Maeda (Dove Pro 07/19/2009)
Kurokage & Diablo vs. Tadanobu Fujisawa & Takaku Fuke (Kishiwada Produce 11/15/2009)
Kurokage & Diablo vs. Kabuki Kid & Hideaki Sumi (RIKI OFFICE 05/05/2010)

82) Kurokage

    And here's the slightly better one! As opposed to the last Kurokage who was trained by Kurisu and based in Osaka, this Kurokage trained in WYF and mostly worked in Tokyo. This Kurokage is also a complete juniors freakbeast, complete with great dives and crazy ass drivers. I actually wish this Kurokage did a lot more, but as usual, this one was stuck with the injury bug, only wrestling for a handful of years before mostly retiring, only popping up to team with Poison Sawada JULIE on some of his anniversary shows.

MATCH RECS:
Kurokage & Asian Cougar vs. Takashi Sasaki & Kyohei Mikami (Onita Pro 08/22/1999)
Hebikage & Poison Sawada JULIE vs. Takashi Sasaki & MIKAMI (NJPW 06/07/2002)
Kurokage vs. MIKAMI (DDT 01/31/2003)

81) Daisaku Shimoda

    Another ass-kicking kickpad beast, albeit Daisaku has a strong argument for being one of the first. He's had a long career working as a reliable figure in the scene, able to be slotted into any spot and usually perform well, but he's also capable of hitting at that higher level, even if he hasn't been given as much of an opportunity to do so. The indies can be a real revolving door for kickpad-types, so it's cool to see Daisaku still rocking it so deep into his career.

MATCH RECS:
Daisaku Shimoda vs. Ryuji Ito (BJW 05/05/2002)
Daisaku Shimoda & Rikiya Fudo vs. Keita Yano & Shuji Ishikawa (WMF 06/28/2008)
Daisaku Shimoda vs. Rikiya Fudo (Kotaro Nasu Produce 03/06/2022)

80) Yukihiro Abe

    Abe is a guy I discovered when going through a bunch of STYLE-E tapes, and I'm kind of blown away by the fact that he's stayed mostly undiscovered over the years. He's a super nifty junior of the Yasu Urano ilk, with a big focus on interesting counters and roll-ups along with a ton of energy behind his striking. All of his early work in DDT is pretty damn fun, but he finds himself during his STYLE-E stint and spends the last few months of his DDT run putting in great performances. He's also just started working again in FLASH!!, and he's still a damn good worker. I'm excited to see what he does next.

MATCH RECS:
Yukihiro Abe vs. Seiya Morohashi (DDT 05/14/2008)
Yukihiro Abe vs. Masashi Takeda (STYLE-E 05/16/2009)
Yukihiro Abe vs. Keisuke Ishii (DDT 08/08/2010)

79) Takuya Fujiwara

    Awesome local high-flyer. Fujiwara's been talked about a couple times on the blog, a Kurisu trainee who has solid grappling but really focuses on his super dangerous-looking dives. If you have an aversion to sloppy wrestling, Fujiwara may not be for you, but I have a lot of love for how, like Young Sammy, he just throws himself at his opponents and hopes for the best. His work in the last 10 years has shown a pretty major improvement in crispness, especially right before the pandemic when he was leading the big heel stable in Tottori Darazu. He's also just returned from injury, so I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye out for his newest work.

MATCH RECS:
Takuya Fujiwara vs. Kenji Fukimoto (J2K 02/26/2006)
Takuya Fujiwara vs. ALL Mighty Inoue (Matsue Dandan 07/20/2014)
Takuya Fujiwara vs. Gaina Tiger (Tottori Darazu 04/17/2022)

78) Masked Mystery

    I've always been a fan of Masked Mystery ever since I first saw him. Just the fact a guy named "Masked Mystery" exists on the modern indies is cool to me, and he's always come off as a competent worker with a good chokeslam. After diving deeper into him though, I've realized he's a real awesome big man worker who loves to work matches like he's doing the TV for a WCW C-show. He's a great imposing force over smaller wrestlers, and more than holds his own when put into big matches. Plus, I'm just a sucker for a good nerve hold guy. Definitely someone I still need to watch more of, but just from what I've seen, he deserves to be on the list.

MATCH RECS:
Masked Mystery & GENTARO vs. Dick Togo & Kazuhiko Matsuzaki (GUTS World 12/05/2009)
Masked Mystery vs. Ryan Upin (GUTS World 02/15/2011)
Masked Mystery vs. Shota (GUTS World 07/19/2015)

77) Junichi Hanawa

    Hanawa is kind of an oddity, as he's been around for 35 years at this point, and yet the footage we have is relatively little. He's been a local pro legend for decades, and I'm not sure if he always worked like this, but nowadays, he's a lumpy little bastard who loves taking potshots and throwing disgustingly stiff strikes. There's a solid argument to be made that he was the most interesting wrestler during the pandemic, when he would hold matches outside in the rain and put on bizarre no-ring Epics with a rogue's gallery of other indie workers. Credit to him for finding some way to make watchable wrestling during the no cheering era.

MATCH RECS:
Junichi Hanawa vs. ZIMA Yoshida (H-Pro 05/29/2017)
Junichi Hanawa vs. Takahiro Tababa (H-Pro 09/20/2020)
Junichi Hanawa vs. KYOHEI (H-Pro 06/20/2021)

76) Yuki Nishino

    Yuki Nishino deserved a criminal sentence. I love headbutt merchants, don't get me wrong. Fugo Fugo and Izumida and the like are some of my favorite kinds of guys ever. Yuki Nishino was a headbutt merchant from hell. He cracked skulls like all he ever wanted to see was the inside of someone else's head. His lariats and chops are just as violent, blatant attempts at grievous bodily harm. His career being so short was a punishment from God, because no loving God would allow someone like Yuki Nishino to last more than a moment. Let us pray and hope he never rises again.

MATCH RECS:
Yuki Nishino vs. Super Uchu Power (DDT 01/30/2000)
Yuki Nishino vs. Issei Fujisawa (DDT 07/23/2000)
Yuki Nishino vs. Thanomsak Toba (DDT 05/04/2003)

75) Pedro Takaishi

    Pedro's an interesting one, because any time someone wrestled Pedro, it seemed like their ultimate goal was to figure him out, rather than just defeat him. Pedro is one of the few capoeira workers I've seen, and he's definitely my favorite of the Japanese ones, moving around the ring in a way nobody else ever has and landing nasty tricked-out kicks. It's been said for a lot of workers, but genuinely, nobody else has ever wrestled like Pedro. There aren't many wrestlers I have more fun watching than him.

MATCH RECS:
Pedro Takaishi vs. Mountain High (AXKICK 07/18/2005)
Pedro Takaishi vs. Macho Michaels (LINKS 06/06/2010)
Pedro Takaishi vs. Ryoji Nagaya (EXIT 09/25/2011)

74) Nori da Funky Shibiresasu

    It warms my heart that Nori, a famous and successful rapper (his group made that damn Naruto theme song), joined a local Nagoya indie and became an old school matworker who throws overhead chops and big boots. I'm just so used to seeing people famous in non-wrestling spheres join wrestling and work a big high spot style, meanwhile all Nori wanted to do was hit swanky back suplexes and rip some headlocks. He was a beast during his eight-year career too, tearing up the mat with the best and holding his own no matter who he faced. I'd love to see him show back up one day, at least just to see what he'd do with the current Sportiva crop.

MATCH RECS:
Nori da Funky Shibiresasu vs. Yasushi Sato (Imaike Pro 10/13/2013)
Nori da Funky Shibiresasu vs. 801 Kenichi (Sportiva 04/25/2018)
Nori da Funky Shibiresasu vs. Daisuke Kanehira (HEAT-UP! 05/16/2018)

73) Ryo Miyake

    Ryo Miyake had a solid career broken up into a few multi-year segments, and yet I don't know if I ever saw him powerscaled any higher than "lower midcarder who sometimes gets a little lucky." Miyake is an eternal sufferer, cursed to be beaten and stabbed and pushed to the brink regardless of how much experience he has gained or how strong he has become. He's certainly had his moments in the driver's seat, like being the lackey for Tarzan Goto in WYF and WAR, but even in those places, he was the designated whipping boy for Goto's team, and would always be the main target of any comeback. Credit to him though, because no matter how badly he was beaten, he always found his few moments to fight back with fire and fury.

MATCH RECS:
Ryo Miyake vs. Kazuhiko Matsuzaki (W*ING 05/05/1993)
Ryo Miyake vs. Abdullah the Butcher (Tokyo Pro 12/07/1996)
Ryo Miyake & Tarzan Goto vs. Masayoshi Motegi & Shinichi Nakano (WYF 07/16/1997)

72) Hiroyuki Kondo

    Hiroyuki Kondo answers the age-old question: "how many ways can you attack someone's arm?" The answer is in an infinite number of ways. Kondo is a great technician with a mind for inventing new methods of limb-targeting, especially regarding the shoulder. Before watching Kondo, I had never seen someone piledrive another person's wrist. He's able to meld that inventiveness with a strong foundation so none of his wacky ideas ever feel out of place. Another wrestler for the "if we had more footage we'd be talking about him much more" pile. If anyone knows where to find Hiroyuki Kondo vs. GENTARO, my DMs are open.

MATCH RECS:
Hiroyuki Kondo & Masanori Ishikura vs. HERO! & KUDO (BJW 01/02/2005)
Hiroyuki Kondo vs. Hiroshi Watanabe (Mumeijuku 11/27/2010)
Hiroyuki Kondo vs. Hiroshi Yamato (EAGLE 10/28/2018)

71) Sakigake

    Dove Pro's forever ace. Sakigake is a strong meat-and-potatoes kinda worker, with lots of chops and elbows and power moves which actually works well in such a chaotic environment like Dove. He's generally pretty great when placed in big time matches against more famous workers like Yuko Miyamoto and Takashi Sasaki, both because he's able to play the underdog well and because he might be the most over person in Dove history. The reaction to his first title win is so raucous that the only comparison point for it I can think of is some of the reactions generated in 2010s PWG. He's the only wrestler to cause a Japanese crowd to rush ringside and pound the apron. That's pretty special.

MATCH RECS:
Sakigake vs. Yuko Miyamoto (Dove Pro 09/28/2008)
Sakigake vs. Koji Niizumi (Dove Pro 12/23/2008)
Sakigake vs. Daisuke Harada (Dove Pro 07/29/2012)

70) Tiger Kihara

    If you know of Tiger Kihara, you most likely know him as the long-time AJPW ring announcer and sound guy. What you may not know is that he's been a semi-active wrestler for 20 or so years, randomly showing up in places like K-DOJO and Ganbare to beat the tar out of schmucks. He's genuinely a rock-solid worker, with strong fundamentals and nasty chops, and he's not afraid to take a beating from the meanest strikers on the scene. Any time a new Kihara match drops, it becomes required viewing.

MATCH RECS:
Fumihito Kihara vs. Yumehito Imanari (Ganbare 05/10/2013)
Fumihito Kihara vs. Kotaro Nasu (Ganbare 07/01/2013)
Tiger Kihara vs. Fuminori Abe (Okkon de Mat 12/31/2020)

69) Tetsuya Nakazato

    The best big man in DREAMERS. I guess that's not a hard trophy to win, but Nakazako was the perfect kind of guy to exist alongside all the juniors of that fed. He's a fantastic base and great overdog, punishing his opponents with huge shoulder tackles and some of the snappiest judo throws I have ever seen a man that size do. He was also a great tag worker, with a good mind for cutoffs and feeding into comebacks. He was even still good in Itabashi Pro, playing more of a bumbling giant than anything else and doing a great job at that. He did retire two years ago, but he's already back doing occasional shows, so good for him.

MATCH RECS:
Tetsuya Nakazato vs. Yusuke Shimizu (DREAMERS 11/08/2008)
Tetsuya Nakazato & Kazuyuki Hirahara vs. Tomoya Sato & Yusuke Shimizu (DREAMERS 04/18/2009)
Tetsuya Nakazato vs. The Great Sasuke (DREAMERS 02/06/2010)

68) NARITA

    NARITA is a pretty massive what-if for me. His career only lasted two years and 16 matches, before ending abruptly when a training accident put him into a coma. However, we actually have the majority of that short career, thanks to both Battlarts and Fu-ten regularly releasing DVDs around that time, and it's something to behold. NARITA is a scrawny yet scrappy little asshole of a shooter, throwing punches in bunches and hunting for cool BJJ holds. He's involved in a few of the most fervent fights of the early 2010s, along with being the victim in two of the most violent beatdowns in wrestling history (one of which was so brutal, it led to a European MMA youtuber making a whole video on the match, thinking the fight was real). I don't know where he would've ended up had he not had his accident, but I'm sad we'll never be able to know.

MATCH RECS:
Yoshinori Narita vs. Yujiro Yamamoto (Battlarts 01/17/2010)
Yoshinori Narita vs. Kyosuke Sasaki (Battlarts 05/16/2010)
NARITA vs. Taro Nohashi (Fu-ten 12/19/2010)

67) Guts Ishijima

    I had to find some way to put Tarzan Goto on this list. Guts Ishijima is a lot more than just a Goto impersonator, though. For the first 10 or so years of his career, Guts was a great mobile big man, beasting the smaller GUTS World roster members around while showing off some scary speed for such a thickly-built guy. Of course, I am a complete sucker for his Goto tribute act, and he does a good job of feeling like his own man while fully adopting the Goto mannerisms and moveset. Think Yuki Ishikawa in comparison to Antonio Inoki. My only complaint is that TTT shows aren't on NicoPro anymore, so the only way to see modern Guts is by buying DVDs. I'm game to do that, trust me, but I wish there was an easier way to see Guts work, cause I always dig it.

MATCH RECS:
Guts Ishijima vs. Tatsuhiko Yoshino (GUTS World 05/02/2010)
Guts Ishijima vs. Daisuke Kanehira (GUTS World 02/03/2018)
Guts Ishijima vs. TORU (TTT 06/19/2022)

66) Koji Niizumi

    I'm noticing that a lot of guys on here are punch-kick hitty guys. I guess I just have my preferences. Koji Niizumi is another of these stiff striker types, albeit I do think he's generally a step above most others, because he carries himself like he thinks everyone around him should die. There's just so much snap to all of his kicks and knees, and he stomps around the ring like he's looking for a reason to beat his opponent into the hospital. For as many stiff stikers as there are, not many are able to match Niizumi's hateful disposition.

MATCH RECS:
Koji Niizumi vs. Isamu Taniguchi (Dove Pro 07/19/2009)
Koji Niizumi & Kitai Kubo vs. Cosmo Soldier & Super Taira (KAGEKI 02/27/2011)
Koji Niizumi vs. KAZE (KAGEKI 04/29/2013)

65) Keizo Matsuda

    Awesome lariat guy. Matsuda has a great energy to him and he hits all of his stuff real mean, but man. He has a god damner of a lariat. From the sporadic IWA Japan footage of the 2000s, Matsuda seems like one of the best indie guys in the scene, and every full match we have seems to support that. Definitely one to look out for if you appreciate a guy that chops hard and runs head-first into any obstacle, and especially if you like a good lariat.

MATCH RECS:
Keizo Matsuda vs. Keisuke Yamada (IWA Japan 08/08/1997)
Keizo Matsuda vs. Toshiaki Kawada (IWA Japan 10/15/2004)
Keizo Matsuda vs. Kazushi Miyamoto (IWA Japan 05/19/2013)

64) Shoichi Uchida

    When discussing where to place Uchida on the list, Ciel made a good point that "Uchida is only as good as the person he's facing," which I think is about as good of an analysis as you could hope for. Uchida is a strange entity because on his own, he's a solid technically-minded worker, but not much more than that. The thing with Uchida is that, depending on who he's positioned against, he is capable of both very bad performances, as well as some of the best performances I have ever seen on the indies. I do think that generally, he is far better than he is worse, and those amazing performances depending on the right opponent do a lot to help his case. At the very least, Uchida always does a sick ass samoan drop, so he'll always be good in my book.

MATCH RECS:
Shoichi Uchida vs. GENTARO (VKF 08/24/2008)
Shoichi Uchida vs. Mitsuya Nagai (Fu-ten 04/24/2010)
Shoichi Uchida vs. Kazuhiro Tamura (RIKI OFFICE 09/25/2011)

63) Perseus

    Perseus is just a personal favorite of mine. He has some blatant issues with his work, from how stiff he is (not hard-hitting, just hard to move around) to how he's at least slightly botch-prone. However, he has a cool ass look and an even cooler moveset, so I mostly forgive all that. He's also genuinely pretty great when he gets rolling, and had a few guys in his sphere that he had great chemistry with, like Takeru. Also, using an avalanche brainbuster as your finisher is a baller move. Two big thumbs up from me.

MATCH RECS:
Tsukikage & Gekko vs. Shocker & Astro Jr. (Tokyo Pro 06/24/1996)
Perseus & The Great Takeru vs. El Barracuda & Yuki Nishino (ZIPANG 03/06/1998)
Perseus vs. The Great Takeru (IWA Japan 05/16/1998)

62) Shinjuku Same

    One of the godfathers of the "boxing wrestler" genre, Same is a guy I have a lot of respect for. Outside of Toba, I think Same has always had the best punch of the boxers, not afraid to really lay into whoever he's facing. His whole angle in FMW where he kept fighting with the Rocky theme in the background ruled, and he turned into a fun touring act post-FMW where he would show up on the indies and give you exactly what you wanted from him: unlimited face-punching. One of the easiest wrestlers to understand and enjoy.

MATCH RECS:
Hiroshi Osumi vs. Jun Kikawada (Go Gundan 04/14/1995)
Shinjuku Same vs. Thanomsak Toba (XWF 08/06/2008)
Shinjuku Same vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (Apache Pro 04/28/2011)

61) Yukihide Ueno

    H lobbied hard for this one, and god bless him, because I would've felt like an idiot leaving him off in hindsight. Ueno's another what-if type of entry, albeit one that still had a fruitful career. In his early days as a passionate FMW trainee, he felt like the junior answer to Onita. Genuinely. His different style fights with Kim Hyun Hwan and Katsuji Ueda were powerful examples of his potential as a complete underdog. Sadly, it seems like FMW really never had that in the books, and instead gave him the Battle Ranger gimmick, which he still excelled in. He had a bunch of awesome matches as Ranger in the 90s, where he got to show off his talents as a captivating junior with big moves, and he even got to revert back to Ueda and work as a heel fouler for IWA Japan. Even if we never got "smaller Onita" Ueno, the Ueno we ended up with did more than enough to deserve praise.

MATCH RECS:
Yukihide Ueno vs. Kim Hyun Hwan (FMW 12/02/1990)
Choden Senshi Battle Ranger & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Lance Storm & Yuji Yasuraoka (WAR 03/21/1997)
Yukihide Ueno vs. Kappa Kazou (IWA Japan 09/29/2003)

60) Yuto Aijima

    I've been a fan of Aijima ever since I saw him come out to "Dragula" in the Tokyo Dome. Once again, thank you post-exodus AJPW. Aijima's one of those steady hands that you can slot into basically any part of a card and he'll carry his weight. He's got an awesome big guy moveset and can play both dominator and victim real well. One of the great tragedies of Kings Road dying so fast is that we never got the Aijima top guy run they were building up.

MATCH RECS:
Yuto Aijima vs. Daisuke Ikeda (Kings Road 01/15/2006)
Yuto Aijima & Nozomi Kubo vs. Cosmo Soldier & Garuda (KAGEKI 11/04/2007)
Yuto Aijima & Kazushi Miyamoto vs. Tomoaki Honma & Daisaku Shimoda (Kazushi Gumi 01/23/2009)

59) Masahiko Kochi

    Cool indie striker in the 90s turned victim of Riki Choshu. Masahiko Kochi couldn't catch a break. I've talked enough elsewhere about my feelings towards Choshu for taking tenured indie guys and turning them into young boys in WJ, but Kochi may be the most egregious example, a 10 year vet being forced to wear the black trunks and start over. Still, Kochi was always awesome before WJ, and he had his moments within it, but none of that should be enough to justify his placemenet here. The reason Kochi lands so high on the list is because he returned to the business in 2007 with no fucks left to give, and that version of Kochi gave us his best matches yet, where he completely annihilated everyone standing in his path. What a career.

MATCH RECS:
Masahiko Kochi & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Ichiro Yaguchi & Tarzan Goto (SPWF 05/30/1999)
Masahiko Kochi vs. Shigehiro Irie (Kishiwada Produce 11/15/2009)
Masahiko Kochi & Magnitude Kishiwada vs. Black Buffalo & Kuishinbo Kamen (Osaka Pro 07/30/2010)

58) Hayate

    For a very long time, I believed that Hayate was capable of having literally only one match. Then I got my hands on some of his tags from the Invincible Black Stars days, and I learned that no, he is capable of having TWO matches. I'm sort of joking, as Hayate showed a good bit of variety during his three year Michinoku run, but it's also undeniable that by the mid-2000s, Hayate had retired himself to having the crowd-pleaser "look at all these cool spots" tags. Regardless, Hayate is still one of the coolest workers ever. He's so athletically gifted and capable of mind-bending shit that it genuinely doesn't matter to me that I've seen him have the same match for the last 20 years, because that match always rules and he's built his entire ethos around that style. If it ain't broke, I suppose.

MATCH RECS:
Hayate & The Great Sasuke vs. Dick Togo & Nobutaka Moribe (Michinoku Pro 07/17/2004)
Hayate, Kazuyuki Hirahara, & Nobutaka Moribe vs. Naohiro Katsumi, Koichi Nagatoshi, & Daisuke Sakurai (DREAMERS 11/08/2008)
Hayate, Susumu Yokosuka, & Nobutaka Moribe vs. Koichi Nagatoshi, Naohiro Katsumi, & Yusuke Shimizu (DREAMERS 09/11/2011)

57) Shoji Ono

    The second awesome technician to come out of EAGLE on the list. Ono is a little guy who puts his whole body into everything, throwing tons of palm strikes where his arms swing forward as hard as possible, and pulling off some insane moves like his OVERVOOST. He's probably the most must-see guy in current Mutoha, which, if you're tapped into that, is really saying something. Definitely one to keep an eye on whenever his stuff makes tape.

MATCH RECS:
Shoji Ono vs. Hiroyuki Kondo (EAGLE 02/28/2021)
Shoji Ono vs. Taro Yamada (Mutoha 07/07/2024)
Shoji Ono vs. Yasushi Sato (Mutoha 02/16/2025)

56) Kosei Maeda

    Maeda is one of those "man of a thousand faces" type figures in the scene, using a wide variety of "Tokai Bushido" gimmicks on top of working as a smaller version of Ichiro Yaguchi. All of Maeda's work in those roles is fun! He's a good junior and can hold his own in a chaos brawl. The best Maeda work, though, is undoubtedly his work as himself, where he would get the chance to flex his grappling acumen and put guys through the ringer with tight headlocks and heel hooks. His work as one of the forefathers of Mumeijuku would be enough on its own to guarantee a spot on the list, but looking at Maeda's career as a whole, it makes sense why so many in the business felt his sudden retirement in 2010 was such a shame.

MATCH RECS:
Tokai Bushido V3 vs. Naoshi Sano (Onita Pro 03/14/2000)
Kosei Maeda vs. Hiroshi Watanabe (Mumeijuku 06/02/2007)
Kosei Maeda vs. Hideya Iso (Mumeijuku 08/02/2008)

55) Akio Kobayashi

    When it comes to different style fighters, some have better reputations than others. Akio Kobayashi lies on the better side of the fence, as a genuine badass karateka with strong success in international tournaments. Thanks to Koji Kitao, we also got to see him work in professional wrestling, and that badassery came through completely. He's an awesome flash-in-the-pan martial artist in the 90s, putting up some awesome fights against Koki Kitahara and Nobukazu Hirai, before disappearing from wrestling for nearly seven years, resurfacing in ZERO1 and working like he never lost a step. One of the best "special attraction" feeling workers of his era.

MATCH RECS:
Akio Kobayashi vs. Koki Kitahara (Kitao Dojo 02/21/1995)
Akio Kobayashi vs. Tengu Kaiser (ZERO1 03/02/2003)
Akio Kobayashi vs. Fuyuki Takahashi (ZERO1 06/29/2005)

54) Buki

    Honestly speaking, I totally bought into the "Great Kabuki's bastard son" story. I was worked! Anyways, Buki rocks. He's got all the Kabuki-inherited stuff down well, and mixes it with his dickheadedness pretty nicely. I appreciate Buki's work no matter where he is, but his work in EXIT is by far his best stuff, where he gets to fully unleash and hit guys with really ridiculous chops and lariats.

MATCH RECS:
THE KABUKI & Ryuji Hijikata vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Satoshi Kajiwara (Tenryu Project 12/29/2012)
Buki & Fugo Fugo Yumeji vs. Kikujiro Umezawa & Martn Pain (EXIT 05/06/2013)
Buki & Fugo Fugo Yumeji vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Jota (EXIT 07/14/2018)

53) Rikio Ito

    The forgotten third Road Warrior. Rikio Ito is an enhanced human being. He's a reckless powerhouse who throws people around for fun. For the 90s indie scene especially, a guy like that really doesn't exist anywhere else besides in Rikio Ito, so seeing him always feels like a shock to the system. Similar to Buki, he has his less interesting work, but the best of Ito is a kind of wild human lawn-darting that you won't see from anyone else.

MATCH RECS:
Yoshiro Ito vs. Keisuke Yamada (NSBW 09/24/1994)
Yoshiro Ito vs. Seiji Yamakawa (Tokyo Pro 02/23/1995)
Rikio Ito & Shinichi Shino vs. Masashi Aoyagi & Gokuaku Umibozu (WYF 07/16/1997)

52) Masao Ando

    I have talked a lot about how much I love thickly-built dudes and shoot stylists so far. Masao Ando checks both boxes so it should be obvious that I think he's great. He throws ridiculous kicks and loves to make crazy faces while putting submissions in, and his series with Tababa is probably the best rivalry of the decade (we'd know if we had more than one match). I'm a simple man, and Ando's wrestling appeals to the monkey in my brain that claps cymbals together whenever someone throws a kick that sounds like a gunshot.

MATCH RECS:
Masao Ando & Yuji Yoshida vs. Tadanobu Fujisawa & Dyna Mido (K-WEST 08/29/2010)
Masao Ando vs. Takahiro Tababa (Mutoha 04/20/2019)
Masao Ando vs. Hideaki Sumi (Yao Pro 02/21/2021)

51) Nobutaka Moribe

    Moribe's a smooth operator. Incredibly slick and mechanically perfect, Moribe took on the role of veteran base in DREAMERS so well, acting as a real bastard when working down the younger guys while also doing everything to make their comebacks pop. He's been that kind of worker pretty much everywhere though, even still putting on great matches to this day. The fact someone so uber-talented has slipped through the cracks is beyond me.

MATCH RECS:
MORI Bernard & Francesco Togo vs. MIKAMI & Thanomsak Toba (DDT 06/04/2006)
Nobutaka Moribe, Hayate, & Tetsuya Nakazato vs. Koichi Nagatoshi, Naohiro Katsumi & Yusuke Shimizu (DREAMERS 07/16/2011)
Nobutaka Moribe vs. GENTARO (HEAT-UP! 06/25/2023)

50) Takashi Okamura

    The master of the seven minute match. I would actually argue that Okamura isn't as brutal or violent as Kobayashi was, to compare the two Kitao Dojo boys on the list. Okamura makes up for that brutality deficit with an unbelievable amount of swag. The Okamura pop-offs after every successful combo are something to behold. He also does throw some ridiculous kicks still, and he acts as a great conductor for the larger Kitao Dojo tags in places like WYF. Also the whole "bad wrestling exorcism" story from his time as DG president is unbelievably funny. RIP to a legend.

MATCH RECS:
Takashi Okamura vs. Masanobu Kurisu (Kitao Dojo 10/03/1995)
Takashi Okamura vs. Shoichi Ichimiya (WAR 10/06/1997)
Takashi Okamura & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Hiroyoshi Kotsubo & Kamikaze (Ueda Benefit 12/23/1997)

49) Koichi Nagatoshi

    Nagatoshi feels like the DREAMERS guy that should've exploded onto the larger scene. DREAMERS really only had a few guys that ended up doing that, and none from the Nagatoshi crop, but the fact he has spent his entire career in the Hayate-verse is mind-boggling. He's almost like an alternate reality Daisuke Harada, with similar gear and styles but slight differences in execution. Watching his slow transition from fiery underdog to ace of the company was one of my favorite parts of breaking into the DREAMERS tapes. Hayate, if you're reading this, please just release all the footage you have. The DREAMERS archive is my holy grail.

MATCH RECS:
Koichi Nagatoshi vs. Tetsuya Nakazato (DREAMERS 10/11/2008)
Koichi Nagatoshi & Tetsuya Nakazato vs. Naoki Matsumoto & Takashi Hirose (DREAMERS 09/04/2010)
Koichi Nagatoshi vs. Tomoya Sato (DREAMERS 11/17/2011)

48) Kabuki Kid

    I have to assume Kabuki Kid is the only J-indie guy trained by John Zandig. Maybe Fukimoto spent time getting bodyslammed onto concrete during one of his short tours. Kabuki Kid is a total blast of a wrestler, pulling off weirdo combos and sick head-droppy moves befitting a man raised in the early Combat Zone. He's a midcard highlight everywhere he's worked, from RIKI OFFICE to home fed Dove Pro. I actually haven't checked in on what he's been doing this decade, but I'm sure he's still killing it.

MATCH RECS:
Kabuki Kid vs. AK vs. Shoichi Uchida (Dove Pro 07/19/2009)
Kabuki Kid & Hideaki Sumi vs. Masanori Ishikura & Dyna Mido (RIKI OFFICE 02/28/2010)
Kabuki Kid vs. Gunso (Dove Pro 03/31/2019)

47) SEIKEN

    The Battlarts shadow ace. SEIKEN's lore is complicated, but to make a long story short, he was in the same B-CLUB class as basically all the young guns of the 2000s (Sawa, Hara, Yoshikawa, Oba, etc), and Ishikawa supposedly thought SEIKEN had the best prospects for pro wrestling. SEIKEN then vanished into thin air, only to return 10 years later after spending a few years training with Satoru Sayama. SEIKEN's pro wrestling career, from what we have of it, fucking rules. He's a complete killer with some of the nastiest striking in the game, and actually has damn good KO selling for a guy that never actually got trained as a wrestler. His matches aren't too hard to find either, so just watch all of them. It's worth it.

MATCH RECS:
SEIKEN vs. Yujiro Yamamoto (Battlarts 03/21/2011)
SEIKEN vs. Kengo Mashimo (Fu-ten 07/18/2011)
SEIKEN & Manabu Suruga vs. Munenori Sawa & Yujiro Yamamoto (Battlarts 08/21/2011)

46) Ryuji Walter

    One of the least "acceptable" wrestlers I have ever seen. Ryuji Walter is straight up violence. He walks out to "Get Buck" and punches people in the face and then flexes on their dead body. I think my reaction to the first Walter match I ever saw was some mix of "that's sick as hell" and "you should not be allowed to do that." Thankfully for us, he was, and that led to some of the nastiest Battlarts matches of the 2000s.

MATCH RECS:
Ryuji Walter vs. Sanshu Tsubakichi (Battlarts 04/12/2009)
Ryuji Walter & Yoshinori Narita vs. Super Tiger & Tiger Shark (Battlarts 10/24/2010)
Ryuji Walter vs. Manabu Hara (Tempest Dragon 08/23/2015)

45) Hirotaka Yokoi

    Similar to Walter in the face-punching department. Yokoi is kind of a C-tier Murakami, and I say that with a lot of love. He has a similar propensity for acting at least a little goofy (aided by having the hair & beard combo of the emperor Nero 3d model) and going ham with the punches, but Yokoi was a lot more game to grapplefuck, and also may have had a more fruitful adaption to general pro wrestling. The tag team with Kohei Sato is so fantastic and might genuinely be one of my favorite pairings of the 2000s. I really never watched much of the 2020s return run, but what I did see looked pretty solid, so maybe I'll get around to watching all of it sometime soon.

MATCH RECS:
Hirotaka Yokoi & Kohei Sato vs. Masato Tanaka & Shinjiro Otani (ZERO1 11/26/2002)
Hirotaka Yokoi & Kohei Sato vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Takao Omori (ZERO1 03/14/2004)
Hirotaka Yokoi vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga (ZERO1 10/09/2005)

44) Asosan

    Strong contender for the man with the greatest assortment of gimmicks ever. Started his career as an old man (complete with a white beard on his mask), turned into a can of Coca Cola for a stretch, and has spent the last 20 odd years as a literal volcano. That has no actual bearing on his ranking, but it's at least worth mentioning. As a wrestler, he's a great big man, lethargic but impactful and with lots of cool splashes and sentons in his arsenal. I clearly put a lot of value in being a consistent worker, and while some Asosan performances aren't the best they could be, he's generally done well in the many different places he's been. He has a sick ass CAPTURE fight in the middle of his old man run, that deserves commendation.

MATCH RECS:
Basara & Shinichi Nakano vs. Tarzan Goto & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa (WYF 09/23/1997)
Cola Kid & Pepsi Boy vs. Knuckles Nelson & Eric Sbraccia (Sekai 06/06/1999)
Asosan vs. Genkai (Kyushu Pro 07/15/2013)

43) Yosuke Takii

    The one that got away. You're better off reading my big write-up on Takii from the RIKI OFFICE piece. That was my take on him fresh off of the voyage, where I got to envision a world where Yosuke Takii ruled the national juniors division, only to have that dream abruptly stripped away. Takii was a prodigy of a worker and should have moved on to much better things. Still, his run from that time kicks ass, and it's not like he's bad nowadays. The SHI-EN return run has been shockingly good for a guy that had spent 10 years away from the ring, and his teamwork with Tetsuya Goto is always a good time.

MATCH RECS:
Yosuke Takii vs. Kintaro Kanemura (RIKI OFFICE 12/13/2009)
Yosuke Takii vs. Yusaku Obata (RIKI OFFICE 09/26/2010)
Yosuke Takii vs. Tetsuya Goto (SHI-EN 12/22/2024)

42) Exciting Yoshida

    Exciting Yoshida is so awesome. He found the pro wrestling cheat code and made himself an Animal Hamaguchi tribute act and a headbutt merchant all in one. It's really not fair to have all of that going for you. Yoshida is a complete crowbar in that a lot of his actual wrestling is, well, debatable, but when he's in his element and doing his spots, there's few better. His Hamaguchi sliding elbows are fantastic, his samoan drop is crushing, and his springboard headbutts are just next level. He's probably the "worst" wrestler to make it into the top 50, but I don't care, he rules and I fuck with him.

MATCH RECS:
Exciting Yoshida vs. Naoshi Sano (ZIPANG 03/06/1998)
Exciting Yoshida & Sanshiro Takagi vs. Koichiro Kimura & Thanomsak Toba (DDT 07/06/2000)
Exciting Yoshida vs. Sanshiro Takagi (DDT 03/28/2001)

41) Shadow Phoenix

    Another man of many cool gimmicks, ranging from sports car to hospital to whatever a "Flash Moon" is, and then finally landing on Hayabusa With A Katana for his final stint. Shadow Phoenix is fucking awesome and I walk away from every Shadow Phoenix match thinking to myself that I need to watch even more Shadow Phoenix. Super crisp and a monster bumper, willing to take enormous punishment and then dish it out in kind, really the ideal junior freak. I wish we had more of his IWRG run in full, especially his apuestas.

MATCH RECS:
Flash Moon & Tsubasa vs. Tigers Mask & Atsushi Kotoge (Osaka Pro 03/04/2007)
Flash Moon vs. Black Buffalo (Osaka Pro 11/10/2007)
Shadow Phoenix vs. Kenta Kosugi (DEP 08/29/2009)

40) Shogun Okamoto

    Okamoto's one of the few IGF guys I can include here, which sucks! Most of them belong on this list in spirit, but unfortunately they all have too many stupid Cagematch ratings. Still, I take my victories where I can, and I'm glad that Okamoto's here for the list, because I love the guy. Sumo is the best sports background for wrestling, and Okamoto brings the tsupparis and tackles in droves, along with some janky samoan drops and truly horrific backdrops. The IGF run is full of great little sub-10 violence fests, and everything from the Z1 run we have is a grand time. I just wish we had more footage of the expanded SMOP trio.

MATCH RECS:
Shogun Okamoto vs. Alexander Kozlov (IGF 03/20/2012)
Shogun Okamoto vs. Fujita Hayato (ZERO1 07/31/2016)
Shogun Okamoto & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Kohei Sato & Hideki Suzuki (ZERO1 01/01/2018)

39) Naoshi Sano

    Mr. Indie. Part of me thinks Sano should be way higher, and another part of me thinks he should be way lower, but my heart knows that he belongs about where he is. In terms of presence in the scene, Stanley is second to none, having worked for basically every indie to ever live and die in Japan. At the same time, reviews on his actual wrestling are mixed at best, but I've always found him to be a genuinely good junior, mixing weird innovative moves with great underdog sympathy. The Korakuen main event against Tigers Mask is one of my sentimental favorite indie matches ever, but he's had fun little matches with basically everyone, and he's still putting on good performances to this day.

MATCH RECS:
Naoshi Sano vs. TAKA Michinoku (IWA Kokusai 06/06/2003)
Naoshi Sano vs. Konaka (Aggressive Pro 03/25/2010)
Naoshi Sano vs. Tigers Mask (Stanley 04/19/2012)

38) Masayoshi Motegi

    I understand the anti-Motegi sentiment. Especially when you compare him to the peers he was usually placed on the same pedestal with, it becomes hard to view Motegi as an equal. Motegi just isn't at that Liger/Sasuke/Otani level. However, I think removing Motegi from that context does a lot to make him worth a lot more than the historical footnote of "invented the rolling german suplexes." Motegi's best work has always been as a big fish in a smaller pond, popping off cool spots like his sideways suicide dive and the springboard DDT while facing indie guys he can get more out of. He also completely comes into his own in the late '90s/early 2000s, having some especially great matches in BJW and NIGHT-MARE after most people had already stopped watching him. I hope one day we're able to see the Motegi reevaluation.

MATCH RECS:
Masayoshi Motegi vs. Gedo (WAR 12/13/1995)
Masayoshi Motegi vs. Shinichi Nakano (WYF 06/10/1997)
Masayoshi Motegi vs. GENTARO (NIGHT-MARE 09/23/2003)

37) Donguri Fujie

    There's a strong argument to be made that Fujie should be much higher on this list. His current placement is a footage problem, and not even the same kind that plagued much of the top of the list. With Fujie, I simply haven't done enough homework. I've yet to do the big SHI-EN dive, and I'm sure there way more great Fujie performances than the ones I've already seen. What I'll say at this point in time is that Fujie feels like Osaka's best kept secret: an athletic marvel with a fantastic brain for match structure and a real mean streak, just as capable of delivering fantastic face-in-peril performances as he is capable of beating a guy's breaks off. When I finally do the Comprehensive Donguri Fujie I'm sure I'll look back at this ranking and feel like a complete fool.

MATCH RECS:
Donguri Fujie vs. Jun Masaoka (SHI-EN 09/20/2015)
Donguri Fujie vs. Bomber Okuno (SHI-EN 04/21/2019)
Donguri Fujie & Bahamut vs. Tetsuya Goto & Yosuke Takii (SHI-EN 03/16/2024)

36) Gunso

    Chaos manifest. Gunso is one of the most dangerous brawlers on planet earth, bar none. Big punches, no regard for his own safety, a willingness to completely demolish a whole show for a match, he's got everything you'd ever want from a psychopath brawler and he's got it in spades. While many wrestlers from his generation have already come and gone, Gunso is still around, and he's even still able to hit at around the same range as he did in the 2000s, putting on some of this decade's bloodiest and most frantic matches. Also, the knives rule. I'm not gonna say some stupid bullshit like "more wrestlers should bring knives to the ring," because that defeats the value of a knife, but seeing Gunso bring knives to the ring makes me remember just how better he is than everyone else.

MATCH RECS:
504 vs. Takashi Sasaki (Dove Pro 07/19/2009)
Gunso & Kabuki Kid vs. Jun Kasai & Buffalo (Dove Pro 08/28/2016)
Gunso vs. Shoichi Uchida (Dove Pro 03/21/2022)

35) Tomoya Sato

    The suplex genius of the Hayate-verse. Sato's one of the few DREAMERS guys still standing, while also still having never fully left the Hayate sphere of influence, but every time we get new footage of him, it becomes clear how much more he deserved and how this must be some personal choice rather than a lack of ability to get booked. Sato is a wonderful technician who isn't afraid to go off the beaten path for his work, pulling out killer holds and counters you'd never see from anyone else and building up to his beautiful array of suplexes. The rope-running northern lights is one of the greatest moves ever, and the pop it got out of me every time I saw it during the DREAMERS watch never diminished. Someone send me back in a time machine to 2008 and give me as much money as it takes to convince Sato to try and make it in the larger indie scene.

MATCH RECS:
Tomoya Sato vs. Yusuke Shimizu (DREAMERS 12/13/2008)
Tomoya Sato vs. Tetsuya Nakazato (DREAMERS 11/13/2010)
Wolf Tomoya vs. Kotaro Nasu (Itabashi Pro 09/16/2018)

34) Tomohiko Hashimoto

    Judo master and son of a bitch. Japan loves the archetype of the asshole judoka, and Hashimoto, while it certainly took a few years to reach it, may have attained the peak over all others. Early Hashimoto is certainly a treat, back when he still wore the full gi and was more of weird underdog while being double the size of everyone else, putting on awesome showcase matches in DDT and Onita Pro. It wasn't until around 2003 when Hashimoto began his transformation into one of the most disrespectful all-around violence purveyors in the world, combining his judo acumen with unbelievably stiff striking and turning in the gi for a new Nike sleeveless and biker shorts. This is the Hashimoto of legend. Just one of the most brutal guys of his time, someone who always gave you the goods regardless of where or when.

MATCH RECS:
Tomohiko Hashimoto & Thanomsak Toba vs. Super Uchu Power & MIKAMI (DDT 07/19/2001)
Tomohiko Hashimoto vs. Thanomsak Toba (DDT 03/02/2005)
Tomohiko Hashimoto vs. Masashi Takeda (STYLE-E 05/17/2008)

33) Tomoya

    Has there been a bigger transformation than that of Tomoya's? Tomoya's first 10 or so years of wrestling are awesome, as he builds himself up as one of the most interesting caution-to-the-wind juniors and has sick ass matches with guys like Asian Cougar and Onryo. He's got his issues, because who doesn't, but you aren't going to see anyone else do a moon walk on the top rope into an arm drag. Then, around 2007 or so, a switch flips in Tomoya's brain, and by the early 2010s he's one of the buffest and most unforgiving veteran dominators in the country. The first time I saw this version of Tomoya, laying genuinely scary elbow strikes in on a DDT young boy, I thought there was some sort of card mistake, or that this was a completely different guy with the same name. Nope! Is this Tomoya better than 2000s high-flyer Tomoya? I have no idea. I just know that you can't really go wrong with either one.

MATCH RECS:
Tomoya Adachi vs. Asian Cougar (ZIPANG 04/27/1998)
Tomoya Adachi vs. Kyoko Kimura (WMF 07/01/2006)
Tomoya vs. So Shibata (Donan Ring 04/28/2018)

32) Hakaru

    One of the better utility guys on the scene, eventually morphed into one of the best technicians in the country. Hakaru spent his early career as Hyoma and fell in with the BJW roster, taking part in a lot of fun hardcore matches and throwaway nifty openers. If that's all he did, he'd be remembered as one of the reliable hands of BJW's most explosive period, and that'd be a mighty fine career for a guy that came out of EAGLE. However, Hyoma turned into Hakaru, and Hakaru is a complete badass of a matworker. His work in his own fed Jishidan has delivered on all fronts, producing a handful of the best technical matches the indies offered up in the 2010s. If he started releasing his newest shows again, he'd probably offer up some of the best technical matches of the 2020s.

MATCH RECS:
Hyoma vs. Jun Kasai (BJW 06/26/2006)
Hakaru vs. Yasushi Sato (Jishidan 11/27/2016)
Hakaru vs. Shinya Ishida (Sportiva 02/21/2024)

31) Iori Sugawara

    Complete cheat code of a wrestler. Iori Sugawara was designed in a lab to be eight-year-old me's favorite wrestler. He's a karate pirate. He does nasty kicks and has the Jolly Roger on his gear. All he needed was some sort of Power Rangers-related trait and he'd have been the ultimate wrestler for birthday parties. I've talked a lot already about karate guys that I love very much, but I will at least admit that most of them possess the same general character of "invading karate man," and that's part of why Iori is so good. He has a clearly defined character separate from that pack, while still retaining the kickass karate skills. He's one of those guys where I get annoyed as hell thinking about how we just don't have a ton of footage of him, but everything we do have absolutely rules.

MATCH RECS:
Iori Sugawara vs. Magaki (Goto Ippa 09/30/2007)
Iori Sugawara vs. Issei Minato (Kazushi Gumi 04/24/2016)
Iori Sugawara vs. TAMURA (HEAT-UP! 10/19/2019)

30) Kikujiro Umezawa

    Another sumo-type in Rikidozan pants that mauls people to death. Umezawa and Shogun Okamoto share a lot of sensibilities, but I think what pushes Umezawa so many spots higher is that Umezawa carries the EXIT gene. Okamoto would beat a guy half to death and then go for the win; Umezawa would just keep beating him until he dies. He and Fugo have spent about 20 or so years having a contest to see who can give the other the most brain damage, and they probably forgot how to count around 2013. He's had a handful of extended absences and scary injuries, but Umezawa truly feels like a kaiju-level monster any time he steps into the ring, and he more than delivers on that promise every single time.

MATCH RECS:
Kikujiro Umezawa vs. Fugo Fugo Yumeji (MWA 09/20/2009)
Kikujiro Umezawa vs. Hiroshi Watanabe (Mumeijuku 09/04/2011)
Kikujiro Umezawa & Ai vs. Toshiya Kurenai & Aki Shizuku (EXIT 09/25/2011)

29) Daio QUALLT

    Speaking of monsters - here's Kane! The two biggest faults you can give QUALLT are they he based himself on a guy that kinda sucks, and that his first gear's makeup looked like blackface. Otherwise, he's a faultless destroyer, who carved out a path of annihilation in Osaka during his handful of years as an active wrestler. The aforementioned blackface run is great, full of awesome matches with the likes of Takehiro Murahama, Naohiro Hoshikawa, and Kaiju Zeta Mandora, but QUALLT's best run came after returning from injury, joining up with Zeta - now MA-G-MA - to become one of the best big man teams ever. I cannot overstate how much I love their run in the 2002 tag tournament, and QUALLT more than holds his own as MA-G-MA's brother in arms. He's also inexplicably returning for a one-off match next month, so I'm excited to see the tape of that in 2027.

MATCH RECS:
Daio QUALLT vs. Takehiro Murahama (Osaka Pro 03/17/2000)
Daio QUALLT & Policeman vs. Dick Togo & Black Buffalo (Osaka Pro 04/30/2000)
Daio QUALLT & Big Boss MA-G-MA vs. Billy Ken Kid & Kengo Takai (Osaka Pro 03/31/2002)

28) Hiroshi Hatanaka

    I have never seen a wrestler praised more by his peers than Hiroshi Hatanaka. There are numerous examples to choose from (most of which I've forgotten the full details of), but my mind always defaults to George Takano saying that Hatanaka had what it took to be a New Japan top guy, if only he could escape the indies. Hatanaka never did escape the indies, but he's given us a great globetrotting career, jumping from awesome tags in IWA Japan to working as the best "oriental mystery" worker of the 21st century in IWA Puerto Rico. He's also STILL going only a few years from entering 60, exclusively working for his own fed Asian Pro, which we've gotten a handful of matches from thanks to Hip Hop Man. Wouldn't you know it, he still looks great, now much bigger horizontally but still capable of hitting a monstrous piledriver. They should finally give him that NJPW main event run.

MATCH RECS:
Hiroshi Hatanaka vs. Naoki Sano (SWS 06/05/1992)
Hiroshi Hatanaka vs. Ishinriki (NOW 02/14/1993)
Ninjitzu vs. Savio Vega (IWA Puerto Rico 10/28/2000)

27) Shinigami

    Another sentimental favorite, because Shinigami probably isn't that great, but I can't help but love the guy. From the weird raindrop theme song (from one of the Frankenstein movies), to the lore that he's a genuinely capable matworker but almost exclusively does brawling because it's "easier," Shinigami has done a lot to appeal to my sensibilities. His WYF work is probably his best, beating up the rookies and pulling off awesome iron claw spots, including the iron claw uranage that NEEDS to be stolen by whichever Von Erich comes up next. I do think Shinigami has always been pretty sick though, even going further into the 2000s and 2010s. He's a consistently solid character act with good brawling capabilities and a cool ass look. I am a simple man, that's all it takes for me to care too much about you.

MATCH RECS:
Shinigami vs. Tarzan Goto (WYF 06/10/1997)
Shinigami vs. The Great Kabuki (Indie World 05/21/1998)
Shinigami & Tarzan Goto vs. Yuiga & Drake Morimatsu (Yuiga Produce 10/30/2004)

26) Kazuhiko Matsuzaki

    One of the godfathers of the entire scene. I actually don't know how to aggrandize Matsuzaki or wax poetically about his matches. I think with how much he's focused on the basics throughout his career, it'd be worthless to try and explain him in a grand fashion. Kazuhiko Matsuzaki is a man that has spent his 30+ year career excelling at the very fundamentals of the sport, and continues to excel to this very day. You can watch a Matsuzaki match from the original Union and watch a Matsuzaki match from CRAZY UNION and find him putting in quality work in both. He is timeless, and he absolutely deserves more appreciation for his decades of consistency.

MATCH RECS:
Kazuhiko Matsuzaki vs. The Mummy (Union Pro 05/01/1994)
Kazuhiko Matsuzaki & GENTARO vs. Hiroshi Watanabe & Hideya Iso (Mumeijuku 09/20/2009)
Kazuhiko Matsuzaki vs. Hiroshi Watanabe (Mutoha (02/14/2016)

25) Naoki Matsumoto

    I think for every DREAMERS guy thus far, I have said something along the lines of "I can't believe they didn't break out." That's true for all of them, as well as basically half the roster. Naoki Matsumoto confuses me the most. He was actually given the opportunities to do so, generally proved his worth in each one, and then still didn't escape the Hayate-verse. The universe is cruel. Naoki Matsumoto was an ankle lock genius, inventing new and unusual entries and variations to the move almost spontaneously. He took every guy on that roster and found different ways to grind them down and make them tap. If I were to make a top 10 for my favorite matches from the DREAMERS watch, Naoki Matsumoto would dominate the list. Just unbelievable to watch work, like a master chef in the kitchen.

MATCH RECS:
Naoki Matsumoto vs. Tomoya Sato (DREAMERS 11/08/2008)
Naoki Matsumoto & Takashi Hirose vs. Tomoya Sato & Yusuke Shimizu (DREAMERS 04/18/2009)
Naoki Matsumoto vs. Koichi Nagatoshi (DREAMERS 10/17/2009)

24) Shigeo Kato

    How far can you get on this list by just pretending to be Ric Flair? Apparently this far. I certainly think Kato has done enough in his work to differentiate himself from Flair, but he'd be the first to tell you who his biggest influence is. Thankfully, Kato's Flair homage is incredibly well-done, and he's delivered his fair share of amazing matches based around nasty leg work and heat segments that seamlessly blend technical prowess and fouling perfection. Kato's whole series of bloody brawls with Diablo are well worth seeking out too, as Kato gets to unleash a furious anger upon a hell demon while wearing the crimson mask. And for all you violence perverts out there, he has the match with Fugo from early WYF where they try to beat each other into a coma, so go check that out if you can't go 10 minutes in a match without a shoot headbutt.

MATCH RECS:
Shigeo Kato vs. Azteca (KAGEKI 04/21/2000)
Shigeo Kato vs. Hiroshi Watanabe (Mumeijuku 08/02/2008)
Shigeo Kato vs. Diablo (Mutoha 02/05/2017)

23) Hideya Iso

    Hideya Iso is so strange. Iso's lore is that he got into the wrestling business because of his involvement in other businesses involving hot women, which he then used to start one of those "catfight" wrestling groups. From there, he started to actually wrestle himself, and it turned out that he had the skills to pay the fucking bills. Hideya Iso is a master grappler, born of the Osamu Kido ilk where he hunts for basic holds in interesting ways and acts as a perennial underdog against the other masters of the scene. He fully encapsulates his incredible nickname of "Back Alley Technician," an unimposing force from the scummiest of sources who possesses such fantastic wrestling technique that you simply cannot deny him. One day he'll finally win the Haoh and be top guy of Mutoha. One day.

MATCH RECS:
Hideya Iso & Crusher Takahashi vs. Hiroshi Watanabe & Hiroyuki Kondo (Bungee Takada Produce 11/16/2003)
Hideya Iso vs. Jaguar Rogowski (EXIT 08/24/2008)
Hideya Iso vs. Hiroshi Watanabe (Mumeijuku 10/26/2014)

22) Hideaki Sumi

    The highest ranked karateka on the list. Call it Kansai bias (which I certainly have), but Sumi is far and away one of my favorite karate guys ever, and might actually be my #2 behind Masashi Aoyagi. He's such a piece of garbage. He's an unrelenting shit-talker, takes glee in making his opponents suffer, and does everything he can to make sure that happens as much as possible. He teeters the line when it comes to his cartoonish villainy, sometimes almost acting too ridiculous to be taken seriously, but I think he does such a great job of committing to it that it always works. Sumi never breaks character and makes a joke out of himself. He is always that evil bastard, and it pushes his karate excellence to the highest level.

MATCH RECS:
Hideaki Sumi vs. Takuya Fujiwara (FU*CK! 10/15/2006)
Hideaki Sumi vs. Yuki Tanaka (RIKI OFFICE 03/20/2011)
Hideaki Sumi vs. Keita Yano (Wallabee 11/29/2015)

21) Tsunehito Naito

    One of the what-ifs I ponder every now and then is "what if Tatsuo Nakano didn't beat Tsunehito Naito within an inch of his life to force him out of the UWF?". I don't really know what this alternate universe would've led to, but hopefully at least more Naito matches. Naito is a fantastic bomb-thrower of a grappler. He's got a strong ground game where he bends you to his will and puts you in mean holds while fighting his hardest to keep you there, but he always inevitably turns it into a humungous german suplex, or stands up to hit a flipping senton. He's slow and methodical until the time arrives to completely crush his opponent, and I think that's such a great way to approach wrestling that would only work for select people, Naito included. Just watch all of the Naito footage you can find, because there isn't much, and it's worth your time.

MATCH RECS:
Tsunehito Naito vs. Phantom Funakoshi (DDT 01/15/1999)
Tsunehito Naito vs. Poison Sawada BLACK (UNW 09/05/2000)
Tsunehito Naito & Thanomsak Toba vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Tomohiko Hashimoto (DDT 05/26/2001)

20) Diablo

    Another wrestler that feels designed entirely for me. Diablo is a thickly-built brawler who swings a chain around, throws a mean lariat, and wears some of the coolest masks I've ever seen in Japan. He's another one of those guys who has never given a massive amount of variance in his work; he's not trying to put on underdog classics or technical masterworks because that's just not who Diablo is. Diablo does Diablo wrestling, and Diablo wrestling fucking rocks. From his role as top heel in KAGEKI in the early '00s, to an invading force of nature in RIKI OFFICE in the early '10s, to the terrorizer of Shigeo Kato nowadays, Diablo has always been great, and even with his steadily-reducing schedule, I have a feeling he always will be great.

MATCH RECS:
Diablo vs. TAIRA (KAGEKI 06/28/2002)
Diablo vs. Kabuki Kid (Dove Pro 05/02/2010)
Diablo vs. Hideaki Sumi (RIKI OFFICE 09/26/2010)

19) Super Crafter U

    Mr. Mask. Super Crafter U has probably used more gimmicks than we'll ever be able to figure out, and yet, regardless of whether he's a W*ING monster or a killing machine, he's always going to turn out a great performance. He's a great shoot stylist with a strong backbone in grappling and limb-breaking kicks, and he's got a good knack for crowd brawling, something he flexes more often in his more monstrous roles. He's been one of the biggest highlights of post-pandemic wrestling as both CAPTURE's gatekeeper and Mutoha's natural disaster, and he's worth keeping an eye on at all times, at least as much as you can track him.

MATCH RECS:
Loss Face vs. MAX Miyazawa (EXIT 08/24/2008)
Super Crafter U vs. TB (Kazushi Gumi 03/24/2018)
Super Crafter U vs. Dekai Ichimotsu (Mutoha 07/07/2024)

18) Phantom Funakoshi

    I'd love for Phantom to start a blog going over his own career like many of his peers (Kamen, Takeru, BKK, etc) have done. Phantom Funakoshi spent so many years working in such an eclectic collection of promotions, and yet no matter whether he was himself or one of his masked gimmicks, he always provided great professional wrestling. He's a complete Showa era throwback, with incredible grappling logic that feels like it would've fit right in on the undercard of an '80s NJPW card, or at the very least on something like MUGA, a company built on bringing back that style. Even when he worked as Spider Warrior or Showa, he always found a way to highlight just how good he was at the core principles of wrestling while doing his more gimmicky work. The fact that Funakoshi never worked for Mumeijuku kind of stuns me, albeit I suppose Mumeijuku only started after Funakoshi's activity slowed down dramatically. Still, what a thing that would've been.

MATCH RECS:
Phantom Funakoshi vs. Hiroshi Watanabe (SGP 05/04/1998)
Showa vs. MIKAMI (DDT 07/06/2000)
Phantom Funakoshi vs. Classic Kid (Wallabee 05/04/2014)

17) Hiroshi Itakura

    Itakura was somewhat of a visionary. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Itakura was beyond his peers in how advanced his work was, but I don't think it's unfair to say that Itakura was riding a wave that wouldn't hit the coastline properly until the 2000s. Itakura was capable of working the bombfest-style juniors matches that really took off on the indies 10 years after his prime, going hard with the dangerous drops and big spots until certain victory or certain defeat. He was also capable of hitting the mat and holding his own, as well as shooting it out with monsters like Koichiro Kimura. Itakura had everything going his way, and if a large-enough company was willing to commit to him during his prime, we'd probably have a juniors style at least 2 years more advanced than the current scene.

MATCH RECS:
Hiroshi Itakura vs. Ryuma Go (Oriental Pro 09/12/1992)
Hiroshi Itakura vs. Masayoshi Motegi (W*ING 03/22/1993)
Hiroshi Itakura vs. Akio Kobayashi (Kitao Dojo 02/21/1995)

16) Takashi Uwano

    I did a massive blog post on the Uwano return match from 2017 a few years ago. I don't love it nowadays, but I do think it's worth mentioning because it's easily the biggest write-up I've done on a single match, and that's all because of Uwano. He's always been a personal favorite of mine, with the great uranages and the killer STU and his willingness to eat unreal punishment just to find the right moment to strike back with a counter. As I said with Kochi, what Riki Choshu did to Uwano shall never be forgiven, but it did lead to a handful of really great matches with Ishii, both as a foe and as a partner. If only they had more respect for him during his following NJPW run.

MATCH RECS:
Takashi Uwano & Keizo Matsuda vs. Shoichi Ichimiya & Jun Izumida (IWA Japan 10/01/2002)
Takashi Uwano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa & Tatsuhito Takaiwa (ZERO1 12/25/2003)
Takashi Uwano vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda (Riki Pro 08/14/2005)

15) Takahiro Tababa

    Easily the youngest and freshest face to make it this deep into the list, and maybe the latest debut on the list in general. Tababa undoubtedly makes it in though because there may not be a greater tubby shooter in the history of wrestling. He has a strong case for being the best wrestler in 2020, a crown without must prestige but nonetheless worth mentioning, as his run in that year included a few of the greatest matches to hit the world of underground wrestling. His classics with Gajo all rule, from 2018's more traditional shootout to 2026's bloody, meaty kaiju fight, and his matches with fellow rivals Ando and Hanawa all carry a same level of quality. He's also great incredibly early into his career, even back when he was still a skinny kid getting mauled by Super Crafter U and Tatsuhito Takaiwa. One of the last true must-see guys on the J-indie scene in today's wrestling .

MATCH RECS:
Takahiro Tababa vs. KEITA In THE House (Nishi Urawa 08/08/2020)
Takahiro Tababa vs. Gajo (H-Pro/IMPACT 11/01/2020)
Takahiro Tababa vs. Survival Tobita (Nishi Mexico 12/01/2020)

14) Konaka

    How is this freak so good. Konaka, realistically, might be one of the most talented wrestlers in the entire country of Japan. The yoga spots always look insanely impressive, and he's done such a great job over the years of playing his weird yoga monster character to the farthest he can. I still think vividly of just how far he would take it in FU*CK!, actively trying to make children in the crowd cry and turning every crowd brawl into a genuine life-or-death scenario for the fans. And then he's one of the best grapplers in the world, too. It is unfair to everyone else that he is so good at everything. Someone that good at juniors athleticism and playing a gimmick should not also be one of the most interesting matworkers on the planet, but he is, and he shows zero sign of slowing down anytime soon, working more matches in the last few years than he has in his entire career.

MATCH RECS:
Konaka vs. Yasushi Sato (Mutoha 07/21/2018)
Konaka vs. Yusaku Ito (Sportiva 12/16/2020)
Konaka vs. Onryo (666 01/10/2022)

13) Yuji Yasuraoka

    Yasuraoka is another one of those guys where I think about how long he was actually around an get sad. SWS and WAR had lots of people like that, but Yasuraoka may be the saddest. By the end of his career, he was undoubtedly WAR's junior ace, fully formed as a strong all-rounder who commanded endless sympathy from the crowd, sympathy that led to him playing the babyface against much bigger stars both in and out of WAR. The Liger match is a borderline classic, along with many of his tags with Lance Storm, in what might genuinely be one of my favorite tag teams ever. He also had amazing chemistry with many of the other indie guys he more regularly faced, like Orihara and especially Mochizuki. Yasuraoka's career was short, but I'll forever remember him as one of my favorite juniors aces of the era.

MATCH RECS:
Yuji Yasuraoka & Lance Storm vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai (WAR 11/09/1996)
Yuji Yasuraoka vs. Masao Orihara (WAR 07/06/1997)
Yuji Yasuraoka vs. Koji Kanemoto (NJPW 05/17/1998)

12) Sad Genius

    You knew he was coming. If anything, you might be shocked to see him not make the top 10. I think, in an ideal world, Sad Genius is in the top 5 on this list. That ideal world would be one where we have either the full Iron Man Contest or his 40+ minute match with Tsunehito Naito. Currently, we have neither of those matches, and therefore, #12 is about as far as I can take him. For as little footage as we have, that's pretty astounding! Genius appears to be just as good as the myths suggest, a wonderful matworker of the Thesz mindset with a great babyface fire and severely understated striking capabilities. It's easy to get lost in the sauce when it comes to the Napoleon Sad Genius, letting the stories and lore overshadow his actual wrestling matches, but Genius really did have it, and maybe one day we'll have those matches and realize he was the greatest ever all along.

MATCH RECS:
Sad Genius vs. Mark Fleming (UNW 07/19/1995)
Sad Genius vs. Tiger Jeet Singh (UNW 03/24/2002)
Sad Genius vs. Gypsy Joe (UNW 01/19/2003)

11) The Great Takeru

    I understand the general desire to see "clean" wrestling, and to rate such wrestling higher than rougher work. I think Great Takeru, in the eyes of those that value "clean" wrestling, would not rank high on the list. However, I think Great Takeru is, in fact, great, regardless of how clean his execution is or how often he can pull off his spots. Takeru has that wild and unpredictable energy that permeates through the careers of other junior greats like Sabu and MIKAMI, that willingness to throw caution to the wind and go for a swan dive wheel kick no matter how close or far your opponent is. Even when Takeru's execution lacks beauty, it always looks devastating, and for me, that's what matters. He deserved that IWA Japan junior ace run so bad, especially after the psychotic Orihara singles match, and I'm glad they gave him so many opportunities to face big names like Kaz Hayashi and Naomichi Marufuji, where he outperformed pretty much every time. Takeru's certainly slower and less physically capable in 2026, but the spirit of Takeru, that willingness to take risks in the name of reward, is alive and well.

MATCH RECS:
The Great Takeru & Makoto Saito vs. Kyohei Mikami & Akinori Tsukioka (IWA Japan 01/17/1999)
The Great Takeru vs. Masayoshi Motegi (IWA Japan 10/01/2002)
The Great Takeru & Kappa Kozo vs. KENTA & Kotaro Suzuki (NOAH 02/08/2003)

10) Jota

    BAD BOY. Jota has been a favorite of mine ever since I saw him wrestle in biker shorts with "PSYCHO BITCH MAGNET" on the back. He's a cocky and brash asshole of a shooter, totally game to get in his opponent's face and slap the taste out of their mouth. He's always been that way, from the 2003 matches with Masayuki Mineno to his one appearance in 2020s CAPTURE where he completely bitched out Fuminori Abe. Jota's biggest strength is not only his willingness to be a total dickhead, but also his ability to wrap it around into a sort of sympathy from the fans, charismatic in a way that flips the crowd in his favor when the chips are down. As with all wrestlers on this list, I wish he didn't belong on it; in an ideal world, his one appearance in Tenryu Project (a heater with Otsuka) would've led to more appearances, and we'd be talking about his current run in that fed as part of his general GWE discussion. Go out and watch some Jota if you've never seen him. He's the best asshole in the world.

MATCH RECS:
Jota vs. Kazuhiko Ogasawara (EXIT 02/14/2010)
Jota vs. Kazuki Okubo (Ganko Pro 07/01/2012)
Jota & Keisuke Goto vs. Fuminori Abe & Sanshu Tsubakichi (CAPTURE 03/23/2022)

9) Tadanobu Fujisawa

    Speaking of assholes! Tadanobu Fujisawa is far and away the trainee that inherited the most of Masanobu Kurisu's spirit. Every new bit of Fujisawa footage earns a celebration from my inner circle of friends, because there's nothing like seeing Fujisawa square up against some indie schmuck and attempt to turn their face into wet cat food with punches and knees and anything else he can come up with. He's a complete monster in control, and has a handful of performances fighting from beneath where he shows his strengths as a guy looking for the one moment to strike back with full force. Fujisawa is a master as much as he is a bastard, and I'll always need more Fujisawa footage in my life.

MATCH RECS:
Tadanobu Fujisawa & Kenji Fukimoto vs. Michio Kageyama & Yusaku Ito (Bukotsu 08/19/2012)
Tadanobu Fujisawa vs. Southern Cross (H.EVolution 10/12/2014)
Tadanobu Fujisawa vs. Daisuke Masaoka (Bukotsu 02/05/2017)

8) Cosmo Soldier

    Cosmo is a fascinating case of maintaining a mindset while morphing a style. His early career is great, as he devotes himself to complete self-destruction, not only through his truly suicidal dives and attacks, but also through his willingness to kick the hornet's nest against wrestlers higher on the pecking order. Cosmo wasn't afraid to throw genuinely unexpected potshots at his opponents for the sake of realism, and he took their receipts back in stride, seeming to accept them as just part of the game. By the 2000s, though, Cosmo's willingness to crash and burn had taken its toll, and thus began his transformation into one of the grittiest technicians the world had ever seen. That propensity to hunt for realism remained, pushing Cosmo to work his heart out on grinding down opponents, doing shit like punching ankles during leg holds and swinging for the fences with dangerous kicks at unsuspecting opponents.  I'd argue that some of Cosmo's best work is up there for some of the best grappling Japan has ever seen, and I'm sure in the next few years he'll turn in another truly spectacular technical fight for survival.

MATCH RECS:
Cosmo Soldier vs. Nobuyuki Kurashima (KAGEKI 11/10/2002)
Cosmo Soldier vs. Hakaru (Jishidan 03/27/2016)
Cosmo Soldier vs. Michio Kageyama (Sportiva 01/01/2025)

7) Ishinriki

    Taking a sumo and getting him to do head kicks and suicide dives is unbelievable. Someone should give Tenryu the presidential medal of honor. Ishinriki is a total badass. His tsuppari rush is killer, his lariat is killer, his dives are killer, his kicks are killer, everything about him is killer. He's also one of the more fascinating cases of a guy being able to hop in and out of wrestling and never lose a step, having multiple sabbaticals in his career only to reappear and put on more fantastic wrestling. The Ishinriki/Ueda match is slowly making its way towards being well-known as one of the craziest brawls ever, and Ishinriki had other fantastic brawls of that nature, but I think his work as a junior deserves just as much of a critical appraisal, having sick matches with Ultimo Dragon during the last few months of his initial career. I hope Ishinriki's legacy becomes great enough that his footprint on the business is not diminished just to being the father of a Dragon Gate wrestler.

MATCH RECS:
Ishinriki vs. Ultimo Dragon (WAR 01/05/1994)
Ishinriki & Hisakatsu Oya vs. Keizo Matsuda & Chocoball Mukai (IWA Japan 12/10/2004)
Ishinriki vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (Pro Wrestling Masters 08/21/2018)

6) Crusher Takahashi

    Earlier on the list, I questioned how far Shigeo Kato could get through copying Ric Flair. Funny enough, the gap between Flair and Terry Funk on my actual GWE list is 18 spots, so apparently spending your whole career miming Funk is enough to get you exactly where you should be in this kind of project. Also similar to Kato, I think Crusher has done more than enough to deserve to be recognized as greater than just a Terry Funk tribute act, but I think Takahashi himself would take the most pride in being recognized as the greatest Elvis Impersonator to Funk's King of Rock & Roll. Takahashi is a phenomenal worker, one of the few in Japan to have a truly great worked punch, and a contender for the best seller to ever grace the indie scene. He's also able to get a great match out of anyone and everyone, and putting him against more capable opponents has always led to fantastic matches, to the point that I was really spoiled for riches with my match recommendations and cycled through at least three versions of the list. In terms of hit rate, Crusher is second to none.

MATCH RECS:
Crusher Takahashi vs. Doku Gas Mask (NNP 06/21/1995)
Crusher Takahashi vs. Hiroshi Watanabe (SGP 09/23/2003)
Crusher Takahashi vs. KEITA In THE House (Wallabee 02/26/2017)

5) Kotaro Nasu

    I'll be entirely honest and say that Nasu very nearly didn't even make it onto the list. When I was making my initial draft of all the possible names worth considering for the project, I actually forgot to include him, and only wrote him down at the last second after the good brother Ciel noticed this mistake. At the time, I had Nasu penciled in around the 80s. And then, after every new draft, Nasu climbed. He climbed and climbed and it was when he got to the 20s that I realized I needed to just stop and really think about where he belonged. And that's how he ended up here. Kotaro Nasu isn't even in his 40s yet, and he's #5. The thing with Nasu is that he's almost undeniable. In a generation of shooters who certainly impress but couldn't feasibly hang with the godfathers of the scene in the late '80s/early '90s, Nasu feels like one of the only exceptions. He's got the stiff striking and the tight grappling, but he also has that killer instinct, that willingness to shoot in for takedowns and keep at them beyond where most wrestlers would go. Nasu is unforgiving and takes every slip-up as a green light for attack. Nasu's also a wonderful underdog, combining phenomenal dramatic selling with an endurance and heart that I find comparable to his mentor, Kiyoshi Tamura. He's someone who has always deserved a grander stage to perform on, and in the best timeline, he would be fighting it out in the main event scene of a modern U-STYLE.

MATCH RECS:
Kotaro Nasu vs. Kenichiro Arai (STYLE-E 09/02/2012)
Kotaro Nasu vs. Keita Yano (Wallabee 04/28/2013)
Kotaro Nasu vs. Hitamaru Sasaki (Kotaro Nasu Produce 06/05/2022)

4) Rikiya Fudo

    Big ass dude violence. I am a simple man. I go crazy when I see a dude built like a brick shithouse turn a jabroni into a paraplegic with Vader hammers and sheerdrop brainbusters. While I've certainly waned off of the "meaty men slapping meat"/"beef" kinds of wrestling, I do still love myself a dominant monster, and Fudo has always done a good job of focusing more on being a brutalizer than a lariat trader. His early Z1 career as Fugo's partner in crime is full of sick matchups where the two WYF stowaways fight their hearts out against guys way higher on the pecking order, throwing everything they can at forces they cannot possibly overcome. Fudo's career constantly bounced back and forth in terms of card-positioning, but every time he was given the chance to shine, he took it as far as he could with the most horrifying violence you could imagine. Still, that violence wasn't enough, and he spent years languishing in promotion after promotion as a great midcarder, but one that would never go higher. And then Koki Kitahara came calling. Of all the people to have a 2020s career renaissance, Fudo was maybe one of the least expected, but CAPTURE's reopening gave him a platform to showcase his violence again, and he came out swinging, putting Naoya Nomura through the ringer and getting himself back on the ZERO1 roster after years away. He's now seemed to have entered his career's end-stage, spending all his time in offshoot group Tochigi Pro, where he's still a monster from the little footage we get. If this is the final chapter of his career, then what a career he's had.

MATCH RECS:
Kuroge Wagyuta & Fugo Fugo Yumeji vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa & Yoshihito Sasaki (ZERO1 04/29/2002)
Rikiya Fudo vs. Yuiga (Kazushi Gumi 06/22/2019)
Rikiya Fudo & Kosuke Sato vs. Super Crafter U & Naoya Nomura (CAPTURE 03/23/2022)

3) Ni Hao

    I've been very annoying this whole list when it's come to guys I think deserved more opportunities in their career. Ni Hao is the biggest example of that to me, so just bare with me. Ni Hao was the young ace of CAPTURE, Koki Kitahara's prized protege, and he was fucking amazing. Amazing! We have a few matches from his debut year, and they rule. We have more matches from his 1999, and he might be a top 10 guy for that year for me. I don't mean that in terms of the indies, or even Japan for that matter. I think that Ni Hao is one of the greatest wrestlers in the world in 1999, a fantastic shooter who came off as one of the coolest dudes on the planet and took part in some of the best matches of that year. And then, from 1999 onwards, we get very little. Part of that is because of Ni Hao/MAX Miyazawa's decreasing schedule as he began to focus more on running a gym and fighting in MMA, but most of that has to do with him working almost exclusively in SPWF and other promotions that don't make tape. What we do have of 2000s Miyazawa makes him still look like a killer, from the insane match with Loss Face in EXIT to the awesome performances in U-STYLE. But this is not the world we were meant to live in. Ni Hao should've been working more SOMEWHERE. His DDT appearances should've led to a long career fighting Toba and Sasaki. His WAR matches should've segued into at least some time as an AJPW lower midcard monster, having brutal matchups with Hijikata and Okumura. Hell, the Sayama connection should've given him a direct line to Battlarts, and let him fight it out with the best at that kind of violence. Instead, what we have is two years of incredible promise, followed by a decade of sporadic displays of excellence. It's a tragedy, but it's still enough to land him this high on the list. And if we ever get the full matches from the Ni Hao 2010s CAPTURE run, just assume I've already relisted him as #1.

MATCH RECS:
Ni Hao vs. Masashi Aoyagi (CAPTURE 07/04/1999)
Ni Hao & Thanomsak Toba vs. Takashi Sasaki & Asian Cougar (DDT 10/27/1999)
MAX Miyazawa vs. Nobuyuki Kurashima (Dradition 05/29/2013)

2) Riki Senshu

    If you want the full breakdown of just how great he was in his own promotion, go read my Riki Senshu #1 write-up as part of the Comprehensive RIKI OFFICE. I don't really have any interest in covering that territory again. What I will say is that Senshu was not just excellent in his home fed. Senshu's work in places like FU*CK!, J2K, and Lock-Up further cemented his talents in my mind, playing the Riki cosplay for laughs at the right moments and fully zoning in as a killer wrestler at others. His real case-maker as a top list guy in general comes from his work in Tokyo, where he was able to ply his craft for a much larger audience in the form of DDT's growing fanbase. This Riki Senshu run fucking rocked, of course ramping up the comedy at points for a company so heavily invested in funny ha-ha, but also really finding himself as a fan favorite, especially in his efforts as part of the FEC invasion storyline of late 2004/early 2005. There's a strong argument to be made that his work with Dick Togo in the big Christmas elimination tag is the best part of that entire match. He would only stay with DDT for about another year or so after that, but he spent that year having great midcard matches with the likes of Kota Ibushi, KUDO, and Tomohiko Hashimoto, along with doing fantastic work with his brother on the opposite side of the list, KENSHIN (the duo with the most egregious mash-up theme ever). If you take nothing else away from this list, take this as your sign to go watch the Scott Norton vs. KENSHIN & Riki Senshu match. It calls for you.

MATCH RECS:
Riki Senshu vs. Kenji Fukimoto (FU*CK! 06/07/2003)
DDT vs. FEC Ten Man Tag (DDT 12/25/2004)
Riki Senshu vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (RIKI OFFICE 12/25/2011)

1) Ichiro Yaguchi

    Obvious #1. Have you seen my profile picture? There was never any other option. PFP bias aside, Ichiro Yaguchi really is the #1 for a list like this, and it isn't even that up for debate. Yaguchi has spent his entire career as a swiss army knife, capable of excelling at anything asked of him. Do you want to see him shoot? Early Yaguchi came into the business as a swanky sambo guy, and all the footage we have of that Yaguchi in Oriental Pro, WAR, and NSBW paints him as a tubbier stand-in for Volk Han, complete with nasty command throws and spine-breaking stretches. Plus, Yaguchi would tap back into that shooter spirit later in his career, blending it with his greater experience in brawling for his CAPTURE work, where he would deliver one of the greatest matches of ALL time against Ni Hao. Maybe you want to see him do big match wrestling, with the cranked up violence but a greater focus on escalation and firmly pro-wrestling action. Great, you have the entire WJ run to check out. His matches with Ishii are disgustingly brutal and contain some of the gnarliest head-drops in wrestling history, and he ends it off with a match against Takao Omori where he plays both a brutal fouler and blood-soaked house of fire. And you don't even have to ask about the brawling. There's a reason Yaguchi has been Onita's regular running mate for nearly thirty years, and while some of those matches don't do much for some people, they do a hell of a lot for me. Good thing this is my list. For 2-20, I could've hit the shuffle button and probably still felt okay enough with the order. There was truly never any doubt in my mind about number one, though. For my personal wrestling sensibilities, as well as for what I think defines a truly great professional wrestler, Ichiro Yaguchi tops this list.

MATCH RECS:
Ichiro Yaguchi vs. Ni Hao (CAPTURE 09/23/1999)
Ichiro Yaguchi vs. Tomohiro Ishii (WJ 07/20/2003)
Ichiro Yaguchi & Atsushi Onita vs. Shodai Tiger Mask & The Great Sasuke (RJPW 03/16/2012)