Hey there readers! Spurred on by the positive reception of the first of this series, its another addition to 'The Wrestler's Arsenal'; the dropkick. If you thought the last one was crammed with gifs, get a load of this!
The dropkick is a move you are sure to see and good handful of times on a show, and to varying levels of success and beauty. Last time we looked at the lariat, and the visual appeal of that is very different to the dropkick. The lariat is a much more visceral action, and whilst dropkicks can be just as brutal to witness, the athleticism needed to pull one off adds a layer of poetic spectacle to it. Don't get me wrong, there's a fair few downright ugly dropkicks out in the world, but seeing someone leave their feet always has an air of excitement to it.
Following on from the point of the setup of the move, this also allows for a whole lot of variation and innovation. Again using the comparison to the lariat, that move essentially requires you to be on the same level, but with the dropkick, you can be on an entirely different plane of existence and still connect with the bastard.
Personally, my favourite dropkicks are always emphasised with height; a point made even cooler by the fact it gains the term 'missile' as a descriptor.
Neville's are especially beautiful - the hang time is just graceful and the slight popping of the kick right before connection makes the impact shine and the move on a whole look much more effective. Springboards in general really add a lot to the dropkick. I cannot fathom how difficult it is to get the balance to steady yourself on the ropes, let alone pulling off a dropkick from it.
With that in mind, seeing what Gran Metalik can do to prime himself for one is insane.
'King of the Ropes' is a well earned moniker.
So, those are the flashier examples of what a dropkick can be, having both a pageantry to them, as well as being used as efficient and effective weapons of squared circle warfare. Changing pace a bit though, there lies within the essence of the dropkick the ability to be used for pure destruction.
That's Conquest, War, Famine and Death all in one. With this, the devastation for me comes from both the connection of the kick and the victim being pinned down. In that one above, Honma is stuck between a rock and a hard pair of feet flying at his fucking face, not a lot of give there I don't think. As horrific as that is, probably a more vicious variety of dropkick comes when the victim is sent flying into something.
You don't have to look too much further than the audience in that clip to see the sort of reaction that generates. It must really fucking suck to be hit with that; not only does Balor properly knock him back, that connection of the head and turnbuckle is not a pretty sight. They don't come much nastier than that.
Looking across the modern world of wrestling, as well as the above examples, there are some performers out there with some stellar dropkicks, and few get me more hyped than Braun Strowman's;
Those fan-dangled dropkicks ain't just for cruiserweights, brother. Even with a silent gif I can vividly hear Braun screaming at Mark with every loop.
Making it 2-for-2 in the shoutouts for this series, Kazuchika Okada also lays claim to one of wrestling's best dropkicks, mixing height and connection to create a jaw-jacking manoeuvre to put down any bastard that just so happens to be hurtling towards him.
Gedo's little cheer at ringside is probably my favourite part of that gif.
Doing my research for this, I like to have a look at who Wikipedia cites as popularising and innovating the moves. Okada was up there for the standing dropkick, but there was another name alongside him, one that caught me off guard. I knew this guy was awesome, and I guess its probably down to limited viewing of his work, but goddamn looking it up made me see the truth.
Ladies and gentlemen, Hardcore Holly.
However, with money riding on it and in spite of Okada's majesty, I would say that the best dropkick in wrestling today goes to 'The Phenomenal One', AJ Styles.
Everything about it is beautiful, but for me, its the leap and the landing that makes it. AJ's not the tallest of lads, and for him to get the verticality needed to nail his opponent in the face is, well...phenomenal. On top of that, the landing at the end is slick as anything, essentially making the move more of a dropsault variation.
In conclusion, the dropkick is a thing of beauty. Whether you're dropping out of the sky, barrelling down at a poor fucker sat in the corner or laying in wait for perfect interception, connecting with two feet is an ideal way to rock some heads. With a lot of strikes, there's a general feeling of 'I could do that', but a dropkick is something to aspire to. I can't tell you how many times I've jumped on my bed going for a dropkick, but I can assure you each time they've looked like pure shit. So with that in mind, the next time you see a dropkick in action, look beyond the common spot it's become, and appreciate the athleticism needed to perform such a feat.
Well that's gonna do it from me for this time folks. I hope you've enjoyed this part of The Wrestler's Arsenal, and if you've any requests on what should be covered next, please do let me know, and whenever that may be, I'll see you guys there!
Hey there readers! We've reached 100 posts here on this little blog of mine, and I thought this would be a great time to finally experiment with this idea I've had for a little while, called 'Pro Wrestling Case Studies'. Combining my love of pro wrestling and history, we will look in depth at someone, or something, in particular. I was thinking I could use this to expand my knowledge, looking into things I might not have much prior knowledge to. So, here is the first in the series, taking a look at one of the best juniors of the 90s, the wrestler known as The Great Sasuke.
The image above is what sparked my interest in The Great Sasuke to begin with. I first saw it in a YouTube video on the history of New Japan Pro Wrestling (its more of a music video showing NJPW over time, but its still a good watch anyway), and it struck me, because the only wrestler up until then I've seen to be that decorated was Ultimo Dragon. To me, Ultimo is one of those fabled competitors who just kicked ass everywhere he went (less so in WWE I guess), in Japan, Mexico, Canada, the US, anywhere that has a postcode. So, I wondered why I had no idea who this guy was and decided to look into him, and boy oh boy did I find some goodies with this one.
After becoming a pro in 1990, Sasuke would head off and spend the first couple of years wrestling in Mexico for a company called UWA, the Universal Wrestling Association, possibly one of the most generically named promotions in existence. Sasuke would return to his native Japan in 1993, founding his own promotion, Michinoku Pro Wrestling. Notably, this was the first independently run Japanese promotion to not be based in Tokyo, rather, setting up shop in the north eastern area of Japan's Honshu Island. Michinoku Pro would centre its style on that of lucha libre, something Sasuke would have studied and visibly became proficient in during his time in UWA. Also in this year, Sasuke would also compete for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), a hardcore based promotion known for its stipulations containing the words; 'exploding', 'barbed wire', '15,000 Volt', 'bomb' and 'Six Man Loser Eats Dog Food Ladder Scramble Match'
It was in 1994 that Sasuke would make his first appearance for New Japan Pro Wrestling, taking part in that year's Super J Cup. Taking place over the span of one night, the tournament hosted competitors from various promotions other than New Japan, with Sasuke, Super Delfin and Taka Michinoku representing Michinoku Pro, Ricky Fuji and Hayabusa for FMW, Gedo for WAR and Masayoshi Motegi for SPWF.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer AKA Big Money Meltz AKA Big Dick Dave AKA Grandaddy Meltzer has called this the best wrestling event of 1994, as well as ranking highly with some of the best ever on recent episodes of Wrestling Observer Radio. On the night, The Great Sasuke had 3 matches, rated by Metlzer at 4.5, 4.75 and the illustrious 5 stars.
The 4.75 would come in the form of Sasuke's first match in what would go on to be one of his greatest rivalries, taking place in the semi-finals up against Jushin 'Thunder' Liger. Here's a lovely match link for you (Dailymotion). Whilst this match is great, it is worth noting that it did give us this legendary gif.
Defeating Liger, Sasuke advanced to the finals, facing off against Wild Pegasus, AKA Chris Benoit, in a losing effort, but cementing himself as one of the best junior heavyweights in Japan, as well as the world at large. Again, got a lovely match link for you here (Dailymotion).
A couple years later in 1996, The Great Sasuke would compete in another New Japan orchestrated tournament, with the very premise being to decide the greatest junior heavyweight in the J-Crown Tournament. This comprised of 8 junior champions coming together, with each bout being a title-for-title match to the point where the finalists each had 4 titles going into it. The contestants and their belts were;
- British Commonwealth Jr. Heavyweight Champion, Jushin Thunder Liger
- IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, The Great Sasuke
- NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Champion, Masayoshi Motegi
- NWA World Welterweight Champion, Negro Casas
- UWA World Jr. Light Heavyweight Champion, Shinjiro Otani
- WWA World Jr. Light Heavyweight Champion, Gran Hamada
- WWF Light Heavyweight Champion, El Samurai
Just a quick note, this WWF Light Heavyweight Championship is the one that WWE do not acknowledge as existing, with them remaking one in 1997 after they demanded this be removed from the J-Crown and returned to them.
After defeating Motegi and El Samurai, Sasuke faced off against Ultimo Dragon, another of Sasuke's esteemed rivals in the final round of the tournament. Papa Meltzer would rate this match a no laughing matter 4.25 stars, and again, I've got a lovely link for you (YouTube). Sasuke was on top of the junior heavyweight world, he had the trophy, he had the titles, and he had the bitches;
1997 saw Sasuke take his shit-kicking, handspring-ing ways to the United States of America, including a match just one day after facing Jushin Thunder Liger at the Tokyo Dome, at ECW Barely Legal. This 6-Man Tag, with Sasuke teaming with Gran Hamada and Masato Yakushiji to take on the Japanese contingent of the Blue World Order, Taka Michinoku, Terry Boy and Dick Togo. That ECW ring makes it all sound much more painful, with the link to that match being right here (Dailymotion). Sasuke would make more appearances for ECW, facing off against the likes of Al Snow, Lance Storm, Justin Credible and even Tiger Mask. Most of these were on house shows, so probably exist somewhere on tapes, but all of Sasuke's appearances on Hardcore TV are available on the WWE Network!
The Great Sasuke would also make a couple of appearances for the World Wrestling Federation in their Light Heavyweight division in the lead to them reintroducing the Light Heavyweight Championship after pulling it from the J-Crown. Both of his matches would be against Take Michinoku at In Your House: Canadian Stampede (4 stars from Big Dick Dudley Meltzer, Dailymotion link here!) and on the following RAW.
Story has it that Sasuke was heavily pushed to be the winner of this new belt, but after he bragged to Japanese media, saying he would only defend it in Japan and wouldn't drop it on WWF television, ties were cut, as well as the working agreement between the WWF and Michinoku Pro.
Sasuke continued to wrestle at a high level around the world until 2003, when he left the operating of Michinoku Pro to Jinsei Shinzaki and went to focus on his political career. In April of '03, Sasuke would win the election for the Iwate Prefectural Assembly, being the fourth Japanese wrestler to be elected into office, as well as the only masked one. Masked wrestlers in suits will forever be the best kind of pictures.
The following years saw him taking some years slow, but mostly he's been battling like anything, with 2011 seeing him take part in the Best of the Super Juniors, as well as Chikara's King of Trios along with Dick Togo and Jinsei Sinzaki to represent Michinoku Pro. Though he may have slowed down a bit in some areas, Sasuke has been wrestling for a wider array of companies than ever before in his career, including Pro Wrestling NOAH, the Kaientai Dojo and All Japan Pro Wrestling. However, as always, Sasuke continues to wrestle for his home promotion Michinoku Pro, having wrestled 954 matches for them since their creation, and is still going strong today at the age of 48.
Over his career, Sasuke has over 20 title reigns and won several tournaments. Sasuke is also seen as innovating the Michinoku Driver I, as well as the Senton Atomico, plus all of his various Sasuke Specials are sure to keep his legacy going for many years to come. After writing this and doing the research, I certainly now hold The Great Sasuke to high acclaim, ranking him up their with the best juniors in history. As a big fan of the Japanese junior style, it has been great to watch Sasuke in the class matches I've managed to find off the web, and I'll be sure to look out for more as well!
That does it for my retrospective on The Great Sasuke. Let me know what you think of it, as well as the concept of this series. I would like to give the How2Wrestling podcast a shout-out as being a big inspiration in the creation of this and I fully recommend you check those cats out, if you're a fan of the graps, you'll be a fan of them too. If there's anyone you'd like to be covered in this series, go ahead and suggest them! I am aiming to go with those who are more obscure to the mainstream pro wrestling audience, and I'm not too sure on the frequency that these will be put out. I do have an idea for who's next, my favourite Ring of Honour champion, Nigel McGuinness. Until the next one, I'll catch your ass down the road.
Further Viewing
The Great Sasuke vs Hayabusa - FMW: Year End Sensation, 1996 (YouTube)
The Great Sasuke, Masato Yakushiji & Gran Hamada vs Dick Togo, Terry Boy & Take Michinoku - ECW House Show, 14/2/1997 (YouTube)
The Great Sasuke vs Ultimo Dragon - Michinoku Pro: 4th Fukumen World League, 2007
