The other day I was chatting with my guy The Prophet of The Savage Science and he mentioned this Japanese wrestler that he claimed was "borderline ridiculous." So I check this guy out and learn that there is nothing borderline about it. He is 100% ridiculous.
The wrestler I am speaking of is a man named Takuya Sugi. He is 24 years old, was trained by Ultimo Dragon, and he is absolutely amazing. How this man has not been signed by Vince McMahon and the WWE is beyond me. I don't care if he is only 5'4" and 143 pounds, I would pay to watch him wrestle any day of the week. Something I cannot say about 99% of the current wrestlers performing in the United States today.
How good is he? I'll let some of the comments (with spelling/grammar errors corrected by me) from people who watched videos of him on YouTube tell you...
- "He is a living video game. DAMN!!!!!!!!!"
- "I don't really like wrestling, but this dude is awesome!"
- "OK, umm this guy is insane. And yeah, holy crap."
- "Dude, he is insane."
- "He has flawless form. The absolute pinnacle of high-fliers."
- "That blazing arrow [move] made me spit out my Mountain Dew!"
- "One of the very best in the whole damn planet!"
- "This dude is fuckin' wicked."
- "Damn, this guy is only in his 20's and he is doing moves no one else can do!"
- "There is a legend, that after God created men, he realized he could do much better, and then Takuya Sugi was born."
- Shooting star senton
- Swan dive 450° splash
- Twisting victory roll pin
- Slingshot corkscrew split-legged moonsault
- Swan dive dragonrana
- Reverse 450° splash
- Running standing step-over shooting star press
- Diving inside cradle
- Ropewalk springboard dropkick
- Corkscrew 450° splash
- High mounted corkscrew 450° splash
- Corkscrew Asai moonsault
- High speed pinning hurricanrana
- Corkscrew dragonrana
- Corkscrew shooting star press
- High speed swan dive pinning hurricanrana
- Corkscrew moonsault
- Electric chair twisted into a sunset flip powerbomb
- Split-legged springboard leg drop
- Double springboard frog splash
- Iconoclasm
- Déjà vu headscissors takedown
- Déjà vu implant DDT
- Springboard moonsault into a double back elbow smash
- Tiger feint kick over the top rope
- Springboard diving elbow drop
- Inverted hurricanrana
- Cartwheel into a moonsault plancha
For comparison's sake, I've listed the finishing maneuvers of the legendary Undertaker (who headlined the latest edition of Wrestlemania and is arguably the greatest wrestler of the past 15 years)...
- Tombstone Piledriver
- Last Ride
- Chokeslam
- Gogoplata
If that's not enough to convince you of Sugi's talent, just check this out... (And be sure to hang around because the second half of the video is the real treat.)
As my man Matt of Let's Wrestle and Epic Carnival says, "Bottom line is wrestling in Mexico and Japan is downright an art form. The wrestling here in the U.S. is NOTHING like that of Japan and Mexico."
So which type of wrestling do you think is more fun to watch? Takuya Sugi sure makes me wonder.
