RIP Hideki Hosaka

 

Hideki Hosaka vs. Hisakatsu Oya, FMW 6/19/1998

Pretty much the scuzziest MUGA match you‘ve ever seen. Hosaka used to be an SAW guy and Koichiro Kimuras sidekick, even had a match in RINGs, but it seems too many multiman garbage brawls have made him lose his submission skills. Basic grappling, but very entertaining due to the struggle and both guys having good instincts. Oya using his spindly form to grab armbars etc. ruled. Hosakas leglocks were simple, but good due to Oya selling desperation. We get a cool finishing run with Hosaka powering out of the Octopus Hold and whipping out cool Frankensteiners, and Oya dropping him hard with those backdrop suplexes as Oya does.

Hideki Hosaka vs. Great Wojo, W*ING 8/7/1991

Hosaka in one of his earliest appearances faces the Great Wojo, a guy with a rich background in olympic wrestling. Wojo pretty much dominates here and looked like a maestro when it comes to amateur matwork. That is, you have to be kind of an amateur matwork geek to appreciate the intricancies of what Wojo was doing, but he was good. And he dropped Hosaka with some big damn suplexes. Hosaka doesn‘t in anything except one desperate kick flurry. A valuable learning experience, I guess, but the Great Wojo was worth seeing.

Hideki Hosaka vs. Masato Tanaka, FMW 10/19/1997

This is foor Tanakas heavyweight title so… the biggest match of Hosakas career? It‘s still co-main event to an Onita tag, but what have you. Really good little match. Tanaka can have a good match against a blind man, but Hosaka adds a lot to the match. Fun AJPW – like opening standing exchange with Tanaka slapping Hosaka hard out of nowhere. Then a cool transition occurs where Tanaka tries his usual elbow to chair spot but because his arm isn‘t 100% he busts himself. Hosaka then does a really fun job working over Tanakas arm using both nasty wristlocks and just going to town with a chair. Tanakas selling was on the money and you actually buy pudgy Hosaka pushing him to the limit. Finishing stretch was really good too with Hosaka going back to Tanakas weak arm busting out cool Fujiwara armbars and other things. I‘ve seen so many Tornado DDT reversals I kind of groan at them but Hosaka turning the move into a big sitout spinebuster was awesome. You also got the usual neck crunching powerbombs etc. Good shit.