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Post by elliott on Aug 4, 2019 13:24:10 GMT -5
Really the best & most successful men's pro-style wrestling in the world followed Riki Choshu's career for about 15 years as a wrestler then as a wrestler & booker. Underrated in-ring worker & historical figure.
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Post by microstatistics on Aug 6, 2019 0:33:54 GMT -5
I'd argue he is really overrated in-ring. Dig his intensity and energetic bursts but there isn't much beyond that, especially in singles matches.
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Post by elliott on Aug 6, 2019 0:44:27 GMT -5
He's better than you'd expect working the mat in the Fujinami matches. He's got more than enough great singles matches for me.
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Post by elliott on Sept 3, 2019 5:19:50 GMT -5
Notable/Great Choshu singles matches:
vs Fujinami 4/3/83
vs Fujinami 4/21/83
vs Fujinami 7/7/83
vs Fujinami 8/4/83
vs Fujinami 9/21/83
vs Tenryu 2/21/85
vs Tenryu 6/22/85
vs Martel 10/19/85
vs Killer Khan 7/31/86
vs Tenryu 9/3/86
vs Fujiwara 6/9/87
vs Fujinami 5/27/88
vs Fujinami 6/24/88
vs Inoki 2/22/89
vs Vader 6/27/89
vs Hashimoto 12/7/89
vs Muto 5/24/90
vs Hashimoto 11/1/90
vs Chono 8/7/91
vs Muto 5/17/92
vs Tenryu 1/4/93
vs Tenryu 4/6/93
vs Hashimoto 6/15/94
vs Fujiwara 8/6/94
vs Hashimoto 8/2/96
vs Hashimoto 1/4/97
His absolute top tier stuff, the first Fujiwara match, the 96 Hashimoto match, JWP Tenryu, Killer Khan match and the best Fujinami matches are all awesome. He's not a Jumbo, Barry Windham or Fujinami type who had a huge toolkit of things he could do. Choshu was "limited" but he also rarely got caught trying to do to much. Outside of the Jumbo broadway, Choshu wasn't a guy who worked overly long and he wouldn't really do stuff if he couldn't do it. His super charisma and few big moves: Sharpshooter, Lariat, Backdrop where enough to build great matches around.
This was meant to be about his singles match work, but a post praising Choshu would be a failure if it didn't point out that he was one of the best tag/multi-man wrestlers in the 80s and it continued up through the Tenryu vs NJPW feud where Choshu continued to crank out great matches. He took a step back in the 90s as he was booking and pushing the next generation. But if we were to start looking at tags & multi-mans, Choshu's great match list gets absurd.
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