Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Timbo Slice]

Man, I'd have to search for a way to keep him off my list, I think. I like too much of his work. He'll probably be in my Bottom 10 of my 100.

[Graham Crackers]

I think his 90s underdog roll brings him to the discussion but doesn't necessarily land him a spot. If that was all he'd be up against the other guys with good peaks and not much else. Thankfully Kikuchi has his 2000s run as surly junior vet which is just awesome. I don't think anyone mistakes him for a high ranking wrestler but he's someone that could and likely will easily make his way into the bottom 20 of my top 100.

[Karl]

Kikuchi has always been one of those guys who despite not being a star, made things better by being there. Top 100? Probably not, but certainly part of the conversation.

[Matt D]

All I know about him is that I resent him for not selling the bodyslam to the floor in the insane Fantastics match.

[elliott]

Where would Kikuchi rank on the list of best working underdog babyfaces of the 90s?

[InYourCase]

Japanese underdogs are my favorite thing in wrestling, but Kikuchi's grumpy NOAH run is so much fun. Something drastic happens and he suddenly gets sick of everyone kicking the shit out of him. He's so, so good at taking a beating, but in such a different way than his All Japan stuff. The 10/13/06 match with Akiyama is probably the best example of that. Night and day difference between Kikiuchi there and Kikuchi in the Can-Ams match, but Kikuchi is outstanding in both.

 

There's a six-man from like the second ever NOAH show - Takayama/Kanemura/Akiyama vs. Kobashi/Rikio/Kikuchi and Kikuchi shines in that, also. He gets a brutal beating from Takayama and Akiyama and he tries to give it right back. It's a thing of beauty.

 

His All Japan run isn't strong enough alone to get him on my list, but after rifling through some NOAH stuff lately, he'll be on there.

[elliott]

I voted Kikuchi 64th in 2016 and I feel pretty good about that. As far as underdog babyfaces and great sellers not named Ricky Morton go, Kikuchi is near the top. I like him in the NJ vs NOAH feud, but his run as a top 100 type performer feels a little brief to get him into the top 50  or into lock status but I like him as a candidate in that 80-140 range. 

[strobogo]

Jumbo absolutely torturing Kikuchi and presumably giving him the brain damage he seems to have been sporting in the past few years is actually a better feud than Jumbo vs Misawa. I almost feel like Jumbo was legitimately abusing his position in the company to hit Kikuchi as hard as he possibly could with no chance of reprisal. At times it feels gross, tbh.

[Matt D]

We've seen a bunch of new Kikuchi in the last few years actually:

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/search/label/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

[KB8]

I had Kikuchi at 94 in 2016 and I'm okay with that. 90s All Japan isn't my favourite style/era/whatever, and I don't have a ton of interest in going back and watching much of it, but any time I do and Kikuchi's thrown into the mix I'm almost guaranteed to see an incredible beatdown and awesome face-in-peril performance. A great FIP/underdog in general and makes me wish All Japan put more of a spotlight on the juniors division during the 90s, because he would've been a brilliant anchor. Still, my favourite Kikuchi might be later career Kikuchi where he was a snarling wee lizard maniac holding the microphone to his opponent's head while he'd clonk it with his own head. Every exchange with Liger is what the pro-wrestling is all about. I have no idea whether or not he actually has brain damage, but I wouldn't be surprised if he does, unfortunately. 

 

TSUYOSHI KIKUCHI YOU SHOULD WATCH:

w/Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada v Jumbo Tsuruta, Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi (All Japan, 1/27/91)

w/Kenta Kobashi v Akira Taue & Jumbo Tsuruta (All Japan, 1/26/92)

w/Kenta Kobashi v Cam-Am Express (All Japan, 5/25/92)

w/Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi v Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa (All Japan, 6/3/93)

w/Yoshinobu Kanemaru v Jushin Liger & Wataro Inoue (NOAH, 2/17/02)

[Jetlag]

https://reverseviperhold.blogspot.com/2021/05/gwe-watching-6-tsuyoshi-kikuchi.html

Todays post was about Kikuchi. He's really one of best juniors of all time, for completely different reasons than most junior wrestlers. The grittiness of his second career half is just something else and his early underdog work is just impeccable. Even a short houseshow match against Taue feels epic.

[Clayton Jones]

Kikuchi felt like a personal pick on my rough draft but I'm really not sure after my first round of watching. I might have him underrated sneaking in late. The deciding factor for me will be the mid to late 90s. Was he underused? Just hadn't found his next chapter of his career yet? I watched him teaming with Marufuji VS Naniwa & Hashi from the Baba memorial show in '99 and thought Kikuchi did a very good job directing traffic. In a pretty nothing match otherwise he was equally good taking it to Hashi and as a dance partner for Naniwa's routine. For opposite ends of his career I also watched his '92 fan cam with Kawada VS the Can Ams that Segunda Caida covered and the Akiyama match from 2006 Case mentioned above. Great stuff in both, I love how Kikuchi is never on his heels, always moving forward, always making his opponent react to what he's doing. Or he's selling his ass off. At his best he's such a compelling performer, like a character out of a Spaghetti Western more than a Japanese pro wrestler.

[Robert S]

On 12/11/2021 at 10:40 PM, Clayton Jones said:

(...) The deciding factor for me will be the mid to late 90s. Was he underused? Just hadn't found his next chapter of his career yet? (...)

The story always has been that he suffered some kind of serious injury in the Fuchi match in 93, where he took a gazillion backdrops. The phrase usually was "brain damage", which I guess translates to serious, longlasting concussion issues.

[Clayton Jones]

Interesting, I never read that before, but having seen that match I'm not surprised. That makes the rest of his career that much more fascinating, that he still had so much more to give. Is the match where he eventually wins the title from Fuchi worth seeking out? Did it air in full?

[Robert S]

It is available on youtube (probably in full):

 

[Clayton Jones]

Thanks!! I was coming up empty searching around for it.

[KinchStalker]

Kikuchi himself claims that he wound down his career in the mid-90s out of his own volition. After Jumbo got sick he felt he was at a crossroads, and then he started dating someone. They married in 1995, and soon afterward he asked to be transferred to the Holy Demon Army. He felt that if he stayed in the Super Generation Army he was going to be the punching bag forever because he was never going to break that glass ceiling. So he transferred knowing he wouldn't get booked in the six-mans more than Fuchi, with the eventual goal of winding down with the comedy six-mans. He transferred to the "heel" comedy faction in 97.

[fxnj]

His stock just keeps rising the more I watch of him. All-time great FIP anytime he was in a 6-man opposite Jumbo for his ability to take the most brutal looking bumps possible, get himself twisted in all kinds of knots, and sell his ass off. Does kind of get disturbing once you start watching the smaller show matches and the handhelds, though, for how you realize the sort of damage he was taking night after night. Also fantastic in regular tags with the Kobashi/Kikuchi vs. Can-Am stuff being a great trilogy of matches instead of just one classic match. The singles with Fuchi are super underrated and some of the best matches of 90's AJPW not involving the pillars. Then on top of that you have him reinventing himself for 2000's NOAH run, where he was pretty consistently entertaining even on smaller show matches and had a way of pushing the guys opposite of him to not just coast by.

[fxnj]

https://vk.com/video498684816_456239038

With regards to late 90's gems, this match with Hase rules. Love how these two guys just casually do some of the coolest matwork of the 90's on a random Korakuen undercard match.