Zimbra Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 1 minute ago, christopher.annino said: You might be thinking of Taiyo Kea. He kind of sucked in the ring, though. I liked what I saw of Kea. He always worked nice and snug, at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 He had great matches with Tenryu but Tenryu could probably have had a good match with a broom. Or Saturn's mop. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 (edited) And Kea was pushed prominently in post-split All Japan, beyond what his talents would suggest he earned. He was fine, pretty good even, but nothing special imo. Japan's racism goes under the radar an awful lot but I don't think his push is an example. Edited June 23, 2020 by Oyaji Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimbra Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 I remember a really enjoyable Johnny Smith/Taiyo Kea vs Kawada/Fuchi tag where they all just stiff the living hell out of each other. That was good shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 2 minutes ago, Death From Above said: He had great matches with Tenryu but Tenryu could probably have had a good match with a broom. Or Saturn's mop. I've always considered Tenryu the best Japanese wrestler since Jumbo. Yes, even better than Kawada and Misawa, prove me wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 38 minutes ago, AxB said: The thing that mystifies me is, of all the Pro-Wrestlers who went to Pride and beat MMA fighters at MMA (which isn't many), his win was the most impressive. More decisive, and over a bigger name. But Tadao Yasuda gets to be IWGP Champion and Alexander Otsuka barely works New Japan at all. Even though he was ten times the worker Yasuda was. The thing is who was going to go to bat for Otsuka? He didn't go through or have major connections to any of the top tier pro wrestling companies in Japan. Basically being a freelancer makes it that much more harder because now (if you also compete in MMA or NHB/vale tudo as many people still called it) you have to string together multiple wins to get any type of recognition. The Ruas win was big and then he couldn't top it or even replicate it. He became plucky, tough jobber guy along w/ someone like Akira Shoji. The problem is once PRIDE got bigger and they expanded their talent pool, all those dudes got deliberately reserved for getting their heads beat in by all the (much bigger) foreigners. Then, he had no chance to do anything else. Much like pro wrestling in North America, it's all about the "right guy" and Otsuka was never the right guy. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eivion Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 I always liked Kea in post-split AJPW. His team with Jamal/Umaga was solid. People should check out their RWTL final against Kojima & Hayashi if they ever get the chance. Or their tag titles matches with Tanahashi/Yoshie and Stamboli/Palumbo. The latter is one of those way better than you thought possible type of matches. It was also mostly a brawl if I recall correctly which likely helped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 2 hours ago, christopher.annino said: ...un, so Alexander Otsuka was fucking awesome. There is an Otsuka match on a comp tape I have somewhere (Might even be a Schneider comp) where someone gets put into a single leg crab and really sets into it and you can hear an audible crack and it’s one of the most sickening-sounding things I’ve heard. I remember showing it to a friend who had only watched WWF and he jumped out of his seat when it happens. 1 hour ago, christopher.annino said: You might be thinking of Taiyo Kea. He kind of sucked in the ring, though. I remember when I was trying to get into Japanese wrestling and checking results and saw the name Maunakea Mossman and really thought it might just be a He-Man gimmick https://images.app.goo.gl/XihpxsrixCGskNsF9 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 1 hour ago, Ace said: What did DIET BUTCHER mean anyways? That's what I'll always remember about Otsuka. in MMA, Otsuka sported "Diet Butcher" across his trunks. The way i always heard it, Diet Butcher was a shoe maker and sponsored him. But it was so prominent and memorable that it morphed into his nickname. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teflon Turtle Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Something else to point out about Otsuka's MMA career: if you haven't already, go have a further gander at the names on his record beyond his big win. A well-trodden pet peeve of many is how JMMA organizations had a penchant for throwing their potential (or actual) native stars to the lions. Yeah, he had the Ruas fight, but in a way that was the worst thing for him, as @Elsalvajeloco mentioned. Dude was thrown to a murderers row for the rest of his MMA career: Wanderlei AND Anderson Silva, 2000 Igor Vovchanchyn, Rampage, Renzo Gracie...list goes on. I'm not sure if it's as egregious as Yuji Nagata's first and only two MMA fights occurring against Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko Cro Cop, but how could the dude have even had a real chance to build his name in MMA and generate more crossover appeal when he's put up against fighters like that? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert S Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 I am not sure if Otsuka ever cared about having an MMA career beyond getting a payday or two. I mean on the same day he fought Vovchanchyn in the PRIDE GP qualifier (which he lost by decision), he wrestled on a BattlArts show (the BattlArts show took place a couple of hours before he MMA fight). That's a double shot of a special kind. At least the pro wrestling show was in Korakuen Hall while the MMA show was in the Tokyo Dome, i.e. he had a very short walk to get from one show to the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 17 hours ago, kafkonia said: How come nobody gave love for the classics - monkey flip and bulldog? I can't think of a single move that people fuck up more than that. If only everyone was Dustin Runnels... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 6 minutes ago, Teflon Turtle said: Something else to point out about Otsuka's MMA career: if you haven't already, go have a further gander at the names on his record beyond his big win. A well-trodden pet peeve of many is how JMMA organizations had a penchant for throwing their potential (or actual) native stars to the lions. Yeah, he had the Ruas fight, but in a way that was the worst thing for him, as @Elsalvajeloco mentioned. Dude was thrown to a murderers row for the rest of his MMA career: Wanderlei AND Anderson Silva, 2000 Igor Vovchanchyn, Rampage, Renzo Gracie...list goes on. I'm not sure if it's as egregious as Yuji Nagata's first and only two MMA fights occurring against Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko Cro Cop, but how could the dude have even had a real chance to build his name in MMA and generate more crossover appeal when he's put up against fighters like that? With PRIDE, the relationship with the managers/middlemen and their respective teams (examples being Russia Top Team/Red Devil Sport Club, Rudimar Fedrigo and Chute Boxe, Brazilian Top Team, Miro Mijatovic) superseded trying to protect the native fighters. If you wanted access to what was a majority of the best fighters at that particular time, you had to kowtow to their demands. PRIDE was more than happy to appease them because that meant they had great talent pipelines all over the world, which wouldn't see again until really the UFC in the last four or five years. So what happened was they were going to try their best (and they obviously had mixed results) to protect the native fighters who they wanted to protect which were mostly the Judo/wrestling guys who had Olympic pedigrees. The rest usually got beat up by much larger guys who I'm pretty sure were on quality PEDs because those were epic beatings by some guys with unusually comic book looking physiques in an organization with no testing. It was all done for what they felt was the greater good (aka ratings and gate figures). Ultimately, that would prove to be part of their undoing with all the corruption. With Inoki, I think that was just his mentality of no risk it, no biscuit. Unless you had a legit badass in there, it was always going to be foolhardy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, NikoBaltimore said: I've heard his name a few times over the years but never saw any of his stuff. Any matches in particular that are worth checking out? This is probably awesome so you can start here. EDIT: I need to start finishing reading threads before posting things. Edited June 23, 2020 by Curt McGirt 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolfan in NYC Posted June 23, 2020 Author Share Posted June 23, 2020 Armando Alejandro Montalvo (a/k/a the WWE PC Stalker) was arrested again last night outside of the PC while the taped Raw was airing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PetrolCB Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Of all the New Generation gimmicks, I never thought they'd bring back The Stalker. 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 This is probably the ultimate Taiyo Kea match. Seriously, watch this. It is also technically the Last Stand of The Lariat so kind of historically important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tromatagon Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 (edited) I was so mad when I found out what he really looked like after seeing Mossman in a bunch of results. Nobody ever bothered trying to type his first name. I was hoping someone was based on the He-Man character. Edited June 23, 2020 by Tromatagon 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nate Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 19 minutes ago, Tromatagon said: I was so mad when I found out what he really looked like after seeing Mossman in a bunch of results. Nobody ever bothered trying to type his first name. I was hoping someone was based on the He-Man character. I loved Moss Man. But I also concede that I may have often gotten high from sniffing his furry body for too long. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 The Mossman he-man toy fucking sucked if you owned pets as a kid. Goddamn thing was constantly covered in hair. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 17 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said: The players to be named later have been named: Who made this trade Scott Layden? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
For Great Justice Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Bill O'Brien loves it 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenalysis Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said: I can't think of a single move that people fuck up more than that. If only everyone was Dustin Runnels... I think the WWE bans proper bulldogs, so people do them Jericho-style as that's the version that is allowed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Now that is just silly. If somebody can't control a face-first bump they shouldn't be in the ring. You'd think DDTs would be on the chopping block before bulldogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PetrolCB Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 1 minute ago, Curt McGirt said: Now that is just silly. If somebody can't control a face-first bump they shouldn't be in the ring. Yeah. I mean, look how easy it is... 1 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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