SATOSHI KOJIMA APPRECIATION STATION

[Alan4L]

couple of things:

- the story with the kids is amazing. I can completely visualise that whole scene and the look on Kojima's face, haha!

- the FInlay match is actually from the Orig Williams "Reslo" promotion in Wales. The language on commentary is actually not German but Welsh!!! horrible sounding language.

- my first Kojima experience was seeing him on banner ads at NoDQ.com promoting MLW shows in 2002. Hadn't a clue what his deal was. Grown a major appreciation of him in recent years. Going to enjoy following this project because I haven't seen much of his 90s work so looking forward to more recommendations from that era. The Tenryu matches in 2002 are incredible.

-random thought. Anyone else remember F4? I think that was the stable names. Friend, Fight, Fan, Future was definitely the tagline though. It was Kojima, KAI, Yamato and Zodiac (Aaron Aguilera).

[Andy Doran]

I'm hoping that Kojima can notch a few victories in G-1, and maybe even line up an IC Title shot against Goto. I'm also of the belief that Kojima-Elgin is going to be better than anticipated.

[PKThree]

In the relative short time I've been watching (I got into wrestling in 2011, into Japanese stuff in 2012) Kojima has quickly become one of my favorites. And he is my favorite veteran to watch alongside Akiyama right now.

I actually watched the Kojima vs Misawa match from 2004 earlier today, that was a hoot. Looking forward to your continued work in this thread, Joe.

[Joe Lanza]

This thread isn't dead. After the G1 monolith ends, I've got the next couple of matches lined up.

[BillThompson]

Interested to hear on one of your recent podcasts that you don't think Tenzan and Kojima have ever had a good singles match. I actually loved their New Year's Gold match from 2000.

[Joe Lanza]

Interested to hear on one of your recent podcasts that you don't think Tenzan and Kojima have ever had a good singles match. I actually loved their New Year's Gold match from 2000.

That will 100% be reviewed here.

[Joe Lanza]

Interested to hear on one of your recent podcasts that you don't think Tenzan and Kojima have ever had a good singles match. I actually loved their New Year's Gold match from 2000.

What'd you think of that young boy match vs Fit Finlay on the previous page?

[BillThompson]

Interested to hear on one of your recent podcasts that you don't think Tenzan and Kojima have ever had a good singles match. I actually loved their New Year's Gold match from 2000.

What'd you think of that young boy match vs Fit Finlay on the previous page?

Haven't seen it, added it to the queue though.

[BillThompson]

Interested to hear on one of your recent podcasts that you don't think Tenzan and Kojima have ever had a good singles match. I actually loved their New Year's Gold match from 2000.

That will 100% be reviewed here.

Totally forgot, but full disclosure now, the match is near an hour.

[DXvsNWO]

Not really a comment on a match, but a general Kojima question. When he does the spot in the corner where he throws the guy down and points to the crowd, what are they saying?

[Alan4L]

Not really a comment on a match, but a general Kojima question. When he does the spot in the corner where he throws the guy down and points to the crowd, what are they saying?

He shouts "ikuso bakayaro!!" and they shout along with him. "Ikuso" means "let's go!" or "Come on!", and "bakayaro" is a general insult term like "you idiot" or "you asshole"

So he's essentially saying "Let's go! you asshole!!"

[Statoke]

As much as a like Kojima, it has to be the worst diving elbow in all of wrestling. Pop for the Ichi Bakayaro is always good though.

[PKThree]

As much as a like Kojima, it has to be the worst diving elbow in all of wrestling. Pop for the Ichi Bakayaro is always good though.

I'd still rate Punk's below Kojima's to be honest. Punks diving elbow is gasthly

[Joe Lanza]

Found some cool older stuff, so lets move backwards before we proceed from 1996

Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Koji Kanemoto & Osamu Nishimura, 8/11/92 NJPW G1 Climax Night 4



Actually, Tenzan is still known as Hiroyoshi Yamamoto here. Barely one year into his career, Kojima is teaming with Tenzan for the ninth time ever, so this is one of (if not *the*) earliest TenKoji matches you can find on tape.

Nishimura was the victim of Kojima's first ever win roughly five months earlier, and after months of losing to all three of these guys on a consistent basis, by August, Kojima, who got started a couple of years after these guys but was basically considered the same class, was finally starting to trade wins with all three. He was pretty much equal with Nishimura in the pecking order by this point, but still a notch below Tenzan & Kanemoto, although gaining fast.

Kojima shows more fire than Tenzan here, but Tenzan appears to be slightly more polished overall. Tenzan breaks out the Mongolian chops at one point, but on a downed opponent. Lots of CRAB HOLDS, grunting, and all of the other young liony stuff you'd expect. Somewhere in the **1/2 - *** range.

sidenote - Check out Dusty Rhodes & Bill Watts watching from the front row, and nodding in approval at some of the work down the stretch.

Satoshi Kojima, Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata, El Samurai, Osamu Kido vs Michiyoshi Ohara, Kuniaki Kobayashi, Great Kabuki, Shiro Koshinaka, Kengo Kimura, 1/4/94 NJPW Battlefield in Tokyo Dome

http://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00121_1_1

This show of course featured Tenryu vs Inoki, Hogan vs Fujinami, Hashimoto vs Chono, a killer Steiners vs Hase & Muto match, Liger vs Tiger Mask, and BRUTUS BEEFCAKE VS BLACK CAT. Seven men who wrestled on this show nearly 22 years ago also worked at least one NJPW match in 2015. Kojima, Nakanishi, Nagata, Kabuki, Takayuki (Takashi) Iizuka, Liger, & Fujiwara.

This was eerily similar to the young lions vs old dudes 10-man tag we just saw at KOPW, even though a couple of guys on each side don't fit the gimmick. Kojiima is the clear standout in this match. You can see how eager he is to finally tag in, and when he does, he has the best exchange of the bout with Koshinaka. They go after each other again later, and it looked like this was the start of a feud, but aside from some throwaway house show multi man tags, it looks like it went nowhere over the next few months. Nakanishi, who works like an absolute monster in the Young Lions Cup final I reviewd a few posts earlier, drags things to a halt a few times here. Nagata works hard, and El Samurai looks like he'd rather be any place on Earth than working in this match. The old man team is looking spiffy in matching purple pants, as this was during the Heisei Ishigun days. *** range for this one, with Kojima really shining as a standout in the match.

[BackLash]

Thanks for putting this up, watching Kojima in WK5 was one of the main reasons I watch New Japan now.