80 Seconds with Taiji Ishimori
Taiji Ishimori vs Shunma Katsumata, DNA4 (DDT)
The hot-tempered guy built like a fireplug is Taiji Ishimori (5'4", 165#), and we see him here in competition last April against Shunma Katsumata (5'6", 154#), the guy resembling a tropical bird in plastic pajamas. Ishimori's pre-pro background is in judo and freestyle wrestling, but what we see here is more in line with strong-style wrestling, where stiff chops alternate with catch-style showmanship. Ishimori trained in Mexico, debuting at age 19 in 2002. He wrestles in Japan and Mexico. (Spoiler: Young Katsumata will be lucky to walk away with his teeth.)
one of my favorite matches back in the day (when I first started watching youtube) was a match between Ishimori and my favorite wrestler Kota Ibushi. Japanese wrestling makes main stage WWE look awfully slow
ReplyDeleteTaichi vs Kota is classic, for sure. I'm kinda surprised I haven't blogged about that match. Maybe soon. Thanks for the reminder, Chris. Decent video is available here: http://www.veoh.com/watch/v18470558wEECxdZT
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