[1999-08-20-FMW-Goodbye Hayabusa II] Masato Tanaka vs Mr Gannosuke

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Kodo Fuyuki is special referee. Mr. Gannosuke might just end up my favorite wrestler in the world in 1999. He has this awesome and methodical mat-based, stiff style, almost like he’s the Japanese Greg Valentine. Here, he takes advantage of Tanaka’s frustration with Fuyuki to attack his arm with some great, vicious-looking stuff. Awesome spot when Gannosuke brings a chair into the ring and Tanaka starts to mount a comeback. He swings for the fences and Gannosuke casually holds up the chair and he ends up punching the shit out of the chair and further injuring his arm. Brilliant selling of that too. The arm/elbow is already taped up, so I presume this was part of a larger arc involving Tanaka working through an injury anyway. They keep teasing a Tanaka comeback and he’ll be successful for a move or two, then the injury will come back into play because he makes a critical mistake, usually hurting his arm even more. Great finishing stretch at the end that had everyone losing their shit, and they kept the selling up throughout it all too. I like that they laid the groundwork early for this by giving Tanaka short comebacks all throughout the match. It made the trading nearfalls at the end not seem so tacked on, but rather consistent with what the match had been to that point. Gannosuke gets on the Nirvana Strangle as everyone at ringside screams for Tanaka to reach the ropes. They do a little pop-up selling of suplexes at the end which I never care for, but that’s not really enough to take this down. They also do some stuff with both guys accidentally hitting Fuyuki, but it just makes the match hotter when a second referee comes in to start counting falls. This was wonderful.

[El-P]

Mr. Gannosuke might just end up my favorite wrestler in the world in 1999.

 

Gannosuke at his peak was awesome. One of my all-time favourite.

[tim]

So Tanaka totally disregarding the arm work annoyed me. I don't need limb work to be sold hardcore through the entirety of a match but when limbwork is such a huge theme of the match and a big chunk is dedicated to it, and it's just TOTALLY blow off, yes it annoys me a good bit. Also the big no selling run at the end annoyed me, although I liked how Tanaka flailed against the ropes after it. Still there was a lot of great stuff in this match, the arm work itself was very good. But most of all those last couple minutes were outstanding. The ref takes two big hits in a row and the crowd goes nut, a new ref comes in and there's two huge roll-up near falls which the crowd totally buys, and the new ref frantically alternating between counting falls and checking out the out ref made it really dramatic and chaotic. Afterward Tanaka hits two big elbows in a row in a cool spot for the win. Very good match overall with some flaws, but a really really awesome ending. The ending stretch was also way above the rest of the match in terms of heat and intensity, which is always something I like.

[Tim Evans]

Man Fuyuki is great. Even as a rudo ref. I enjoyed this overall. Had a lot of different styles mixed in one match, Shoot style, american style and even hardcore with the chair. Told a good story and yeah the finish is great.

[soup23]

I can see Tim's points with the arm work and the no selliing of suplexes. However, I did think that Gannosuke isolated the arm enough that he was able to withstand more punishment from Tanaka than he usually would have. Fuyuki was a compelling referee and his involvement made the finishing stretch more dramatic. FMW was really firing at this time and had a bevy of roster members that are among my favorites worldwide. ****1/4

[JKWebb]

#134 - placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-150-101/

 

This match definitely had some cool moments (especially the ending with the ref bumps). I thought the damage done to Tanaka went a little over the top with him being dropped on his head so many times, and one moment looked like it almost killed him. I thought the work on the arm was good, and the selling of that was decent enough. The action was great. I thought this was entertaining, but I probably don't like it as much as some. ***3/4

[PeteF3]

I think this might be my favorite "straight" FMW match--okay, it's not totally gimmick-free with Fuyuki in there, but he does a good job of establishing his role as a biased ref but also staying out of the way and not getting himself over. He does a few key heel-ref spots and then refs this straight, and the result is more of a quasi-handicap match than an angle designed to show off how smart the heel authority figure is. I can't say that I found myself caring about either the blown-off arm work or, incredibly, the pop-up no-sell of the German suplex by Tanaka. I hate that spot even more than some others here and yet here Tanaka made it look like an organic, Hulk Up-style comeback rather than GRR STRONG STYLE macho bullshit. There are some heart-stopping near-falls here before and after Fuyuki is disposed of, and Tanaka finally uses a second Diamond Dust to put Gannosuke down. A strong in-match storylines--several of them--great moves, hot sequences, a hot crowd, and a babyface facing impossible odds and winning. What's not to like? MOTYC.

[Superstar Sleeze]

FMW Independent Heavyweight Champion Mr. Gannosuke vs Masato Tanaka - FMW 8/20/99

Mr. Gannosuke is easily my favorite FMW wrestler as he has great heel charisma, is great a garbage brawler but can hang on the mat and throws great strikes. Evil Comissioner Kodo Fuyuki plays the crooked ref in this match. Some fun spots at the beginning like making Tanaka break on the ropes, but Gannosuke got smack Tanaka on the ropes. Tanaka has a clean chinlock, but Gannosuke claims it is a choke to Fuyuki breaks. Tanaka applies a figure-4 but Fuyuki flips Gannosuke over onto the ropes. Good shit like that. At this FMW as switched from deathmatch wrestling to being an Attitude Era-inspired promotion. On the canvas it reads "Entertainment Wrestling" and this is very entertaining wrestling.

Gannosuke is  able to grab a hold of he arm and wrench it against the ropes. Great heat segment ensues where Gannosuke does a great combination of hard strikes and a variety of holds (double wristlock is sold really well and I love a good short arm scissors). Fuyuki lets Gannosuke attack the arm with a chair. Remember Tanaka relies a lot on that elbow. He removes the pad to reveal a bandaged elbow. The chair gets introduced again. Fuyuki goes to "chastise" the wrestler that threw it in, but Tanak is able to thwart its use by attacking Gannosuke. He gets his first mini-comeback including a tornado DDT and missile dropkick (the count was a little on the slow side and Tanaka gave Fuyuki some side-eye). Tanaka eats knees on the splash. Gannosuke goes right back to the arm. Gannosuke switches from arm work to bombs galore. On the second powerbomb, Tanaka wriggles free and hits a massive lariat. He does clutch his bad arm afterwards. At this point, the match starts to be more reminiscent of the King's Road style with a lot of bomb-throwing and Tanaka selling the arm keeping him from fully capitalizing. As he hitting moves or elbows, he is slow to follow up. Gannosuke hits a CRAZY COUNTER! He is about backdrop out of a powerbomb, but instead basically piledrivers Tanaka into the mat. Fuyuki does some good fast counting...could be a little faster, but the energy is there. Gannosuke starts throwing out suplexes galore (Northern Lights, Dragon, German) and Tanaka has some great loopy sells of these. I really liked the Full Nelson Camel Clutch that should be stolen, looked painful. Gannosuke Driver gets two and thats the climax of this finish run for the bad guy. Tanaka no sells the next German, Lariat and Enziguiri until he finally fells Mr. Gannosuke with an Elbow! I like the finish stretch where first Gannosuke wipes out Fuyuki with a lariat by accident and then Tanaka floors him after Gannosuke moves until he is knocked out. The new ref is in and Tanaka needs to hit an elbow and his Flip Stone Cold Stunner to win the match. 

There's definitely overkill and Tanaka could have sold the arm a little more to put over he was fighting through the pain (I think it was there, but understated). However, I thought this was fun as hell. The first 15 minutes is just classic, over the top babyface vs heel gold with Gannosuke just being the man. The finish run is big, dumb fun that is All Japan-inspired. Call me crazy, but I loved this and think this is easily the best FMW match I have ever seen. ****1/2