[Pancrase/New Japan] Suzuki defeats Liger (2002/11/30)

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Minoru Suzuki defeated Jushin Thunder Liger on 2002/11/30 Pancrase card when Suzuki put a choke sleeper hold on Liger at 1'48" in the first round.

Kensuke Sasaki, who was originally scheduled to fight Suzuki, was also in the attendance. After the match, Suzuki grabbed the mic and said to Kensuke, "make up your mind if you still wanna fight or not." Kensuke came in and shook hands with Suzuki. Suzuki also asked the promoter and commissioner to book a match between him and Kensuke at the 10th anniversary card next year.

[terrier mask]

I don't understand why Jushin Liger did an MMA bout. His wrestling style does not reflect that of a shooter AT ALL!!!! I could see guys like Koji Kanemoto, Ikuto Hidaka, etc. in am MMA bout (cause they have that shooter like style) but Liger??? Nu uh. I love Liger as a wrestler, but he shouldn't be an MMA fighter. The last time I checked, Liger bombs and rolling Koppuo kicks can't really do the trick in MMA.

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Liger was one of the last guys whom Fujiwara trained in New Japan if that explains something.

[terrier mask]

Yoshiaki Fujiwara trained, eh??? Well, last time I checked, Fujiwara armbars can't really do the trick in MMA either. All you gotta do is roll forward, and Voila!!! You got out of it!! So I don't know if Fujiwara would be such a great vale tudo trainer. But oh well.

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

I guess my comment didn't explain anything if that's all you know about Fujiwara.

[terrier mask]

(laughs out loud). Last time I checked Hisa, that's pretty much all Fujiwara does in his matches, well, atleast in the past few years. I saw the Zero-one ppv "impossible to escape", he teamed up with Don Arikawa (I don't remember the guys they went against though) and that's all Fujiwara did, Hisa. Arikawa did practically all the work (in a comedy match, no doubt). So there

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

For those of you who don't know much about Fujiwara, he's the one who trained most of the guys from UWF, Fujiwara-gumi, and early days of Pancrase. His students include: Satoru Sayama, Akira Maeda, Nobuhiko Takada, Kazuo Yamazaki (not sure about this one), Keiichi Yamada, Masakatsu Funaki, Minoru Suzuki, Yuusuke Fuke, Ryushi Yanagisawa, Alexander Ohtsuka, and others.

I remember reading Boris Malenko's letter to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter in the early 90s. According to Malenko, among all those wrestlers who came to Florida all the way from Japan, Fujiwara was the only one who could actually keep up with the training/coaching given by Karl Gotch. I tend to believe Osamu Kido also did well, though.

I'm sure it does explain something to some of you.

By the way, Mutoh, Chono, and Hashimoto were trained by Don Arakawa, who in the early 80s wasn't a bad wrestler at all.

[terrier mask]

Ok Hisa, you win. I'll take ur word for it. You know alot more about wrestling than I do. I'll check up on some of Fujiwara's older stuff (and while I'm at it, some of Don Arikawa's stuff as well). So, I'll shut up while I'm ahead.

And by the way, Hisa, you must admit though, that Fujiwara must retire soon. Or atleast only do comedy matches in Zero-one (even though I don't care much for comedy matches, zero-one's are actually pretty funny, especially with Steve Corino. He is actually a pretty funny guy.)

[CrimsonMask]

I don't get the logic of this either, but... wasn't Liger/Yamada national champion as an amateur?

So long from the Sunshine State!

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Yamada went to the high school national championship but didn't win. I believe reading in the Observer that he lost to Kawada in the tournament, but I'm not sure about that because it's hard for me to believe they were in the same weight division. Anyone can clarify this?

Originally posted by terrier mask
I'll check up on some of Fujiwara's older stuff (and while I'm at it, some of Don Arikawa's stuff as well).

I'm not sure if you can easily find Arakawa's old matches because he mainly wreslted in non-televised prelim/midcard matches when he was in New Japan.

[terrier mask]

HHHHHHmmmmmmm...... It will be hard and long, but, I will prevail and find some of Arikawa's older stuff. Rfvideo.com has tons of compilation tapes, so maybe them. And plus, highspots.com has a thing were you could make ur own custom made tapes. I have my ways with finding what I want