Wrote about his career for Voices. One of my favorite wrestlers ever and responsible for my favorite style of wrestling. 

https://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2025/02/15/the-life-career-enduring-legacy-of-gran-hamada/

4 hours ago, DylanZero said:

In terms of Lucharesu I'm hopeful Great Sasuke gets nominated at some point to look into more. Also it will be interesting the reaction to Mochizuki being on next year. 

I asked for Sasuke to get put on. Sadly it did not work out. 

Mocchy getting on makes me happy and sad at the same time. I will vote for him as long as he's on the ballot. I had him at #10 in 2016 GWE and #6 in 2021 GWE. He's one of my 5 favorite wrestlers of all-time. He's a better candidate than Ishii, but the uphill battle that was getting CIMA in means that Mochizuki has no chance. He'll fall off next year, I can't imagine him getting 10%. 

It's amazing to me that this website that prides itself on being such a beacon of history refuses to do any research on CIMA or Shingo. Two completely valid candidates stronger than anyone else in the field, especially Satomura or Fujiwara, who I see listed above. 

2 hours ago, DylanZero said:

I said it on my show, we're all in a standoff on Fujiwara. Everyone's dug their heels in and he's become this lightning rod candidate and I think it enables people to go overboard on whatever side we happen to land on with him. I think the biggest flaw of the anti-Fujiwara folks are you have to ignore the people he had a hand in training to disparage his historical significance which should be universally considered very high, which is similar to Hamada which your very show and Cubs did a great job advocating for and I totally agree with him also being in the HOF for the record. The work level will always be subjective but it's why I can't knock Ishii personally even though he was significantly less of a star and vital to Puroresu history than a Fujiwara & Takayama in the grand scheme. 

 

Takayama is interesting because you yourself just wrote an article advocating for Samoa Joe and I feel they're actually somewhat similar candidates and you would be the guy to bring this up to as much as anyone when looking at them directly.

 

Both had a 3 year or so run where they were BITW level in-ring followed by a stark drop in quality. The difference is Joe went 15 years or so either doing stuff that was wholly unimpressive or actively bad. Gerard brought up his run in WWE as being better than I thought and when I asked which great matches he had to make him think that he didn't have any answer, and nobody would. Because there aren't any. Even now, he really needs the right opponent like Darby who is literally one of the best wrestlers alive to get something really memorable. He is one of the best promo guys and was even a great Commentator and that's why he was able to reinvent himself and that's admirable and why he's lasted as well as he has.

 

With Takayama there are multiple instances on tape of him having great performances as late as 2015 and he never dipped below being at least good until the tail end in DDT and was always actively effective in his role. Also even before his peak years he had NO FEAR as a team and Joe didn't have anything on that level before his breakthrough, and in general Takayama has a much deeper tag lineage and versatility both I that team and him and Suzuki which were a main event level act in 2004 and had a decent amount of hidden gems, I actually thought that may be the best and most consistent Minoru Suzuki has ever been was teaming with Takayama.

 

Also different even in their peak runs were Takayama was literally a top 5 star and most famous name in Japan during his time whereas Joe was a top 5 indie  name in a huge down period of wrestling overall. The one time he ever has felt like a top top guy in US wrestling overall was the Brock feud which of course they totally fumbled after. Joe did stabilize AEW after the disastrous Cole/MJF run which could be akin to Tak raising business a bit in AJPW after the goofy stuff Muto was doing in 08/09. Also as I mentioned, this isn't an opinion but something that we know is true based on historical precedent all the way up to the aforementioned Brock, which is MMA has ALWAYS counted for the WON which Takayama also has in his back pocket over not just Joe but virtually every candidate in terms of historical significance which we still see parodied to this day 20 years later.

 

And I love Joe BTW and you could argue his run at the top up until around 2008 or so was all time great and he was one of my favorites. But I just think Takayama when compared directly as a similar short peak type of candidate would win out.

I don't get put off by people voting for Fujiwara, but I am put off by the idea that somehow the voting base isn't doing the right kind of research and that's why Fujiwara isn't in, which I felt like the comment I was replying to was saying. I've always found your Fujiwara stance to be compelling, even if I ultimately disagree. 

It's funny you mention the Joe comp because I had a few paragraphs in there originally about how he's similar to Takayama, but I took them out because I couldn't figure out exactly what I was trying to say. Takayama raising business in All Japan is an interesting point that I admittedly hadn't thought of. I want to dig into some of that now. I think Joe's 2010's are more of a positive than you do (I reference his brief ROH return in 2015 in my article, I love all of those matches). I like his NXT run (and I think those house show numbers I highlighted are really impressive), I like the Brock match and love the four-way at Summerslam, and I think he's been kind of awesome in AEW. He's probably not someone I would consider voting for without this AEW run, but when I realized that he'd be pushed to the top in literally every promotion that used him in any real way, I started thinking he had a real case. 

In my head, I've always hand-waved 2010's Takayama. That might be wrong of me, though. The last great match that I remember him having was the tag with KENTA vs. Sugiura & Tanaka in 2014, which was GREAT. The MiSu title match in 2015 I enjoyed as a car crash spectacle, more than anything. 

So in short, I think you're right, Joe and Takayama are very similar. The difference is that I think Joe stayed relevant for a longer period of time, and I think ROH has been unfairly (or perhaps unknowingly) shafted over the last few years.

5 hours ago, Control21 said:

Great listen. It's very frustrating that Takayama and Fujiwara seem to carry a certain stigma with WON HOF voters and the 'researchers' that drive the discussion around it these days. Ishii is in, Shingo is likely getting in this year.....if those two guys are in and Fujiwara/Takayama are still unworthy, all you can do is shake your head I guess.

Would love to hear some expanded thoughts on this. I love Takayama and I don't think he's a HOFer. I'm so tired of this Fujiwara discussion. He's not a HOFer. There's no metric in which he is. Shoot-style is at best, properly represented in the Hall, and likely, overrepresented. There's no metric of this Hall that Fujiwara outperforms Shingo in. Fujiwara has been on the ballot since 2016 and he's never finished about 40%. Is that the "researchers" fault? 

Myself and Mike Spears did 90 minutes on Gran Hamada with The Cubs Fan. We went through his entire career, including his impressive and often unheralded drawing record in Mexico, contextualized his influence and how it's still seen in modern-day wrestling, and ripped through a bunch of great Hamada match recommendations. If you're considering voting in the Mexico region, or just like wrestling history, I would highly recommend. 

  

I would genuinely question anyone's ability to analyze wrestling if they don't see the overwhelming greatness in Ospreay at this point. He might not work your preferred style, but there is an objective greatness to what he's been doing over the last five years that cannot be ignored.

He has yet to fail. Everywhere he's worked, he's wound up being a top guy, and I think that really matters. He is one of the best junior heavyweights in the history of New Japan. He had really intricate matches with KUSHIDA, elite-level high-flying matches with Ricochet, big room juniors matches with Hiroumu, and then a bunch of hidden-gem stuff like the MOTYC against Taguchi and the Shibata match. This is all before 2019 when he started to transition into being a heavyweight. 

You can't draw up a better year than the one he had in 2019. He was so unbelievably good in that year's BOSJ, now working as a veteran of the division and leading lesser-experienced guys like Robbie Eagles and Bandido to tremendous matches. That all concluded with a legitimate dream match between he and Shingo that was such a no-doubt 5 star match. In all my years of watching wresting, it remains one of the most satisfying matches I've ever watched. It is here when Ospreay, to me, became an undeniably brilliant wrestler. He found this harmony between what his mind wanted to do and what his body was capable of and he's been riding that wave ever since.

He bulked up, worked the G1 that year as a fish-out-of-water, and immediately proved that he could be a top heavyweight in NJPW. 

This is where I really start to scratch my head with Ospreay criticisms. If you didn't like him as a junior, whatever, I think you're wrong, but there's an obvious bias around anyone that even thinks about incorporating flying moves into their arsenal that I've come to accept it. As a heavyweight, Ospreay throws vicious strikes. Like, this is the type of thing that this forum should be celebrating. He started throwing such a mean-looking elbow that a large segment of the English-speaking NJPW fanbase wanted him to stop doing the move because they thought he actually concussed Kota Ibushi. I thought that was a good thing when it happened in FUTEN? 

The selling complaints are such nonsense. It especially falls on deaf ears with me now that he's the most over guy in an American promotion and he's done it by routinely building sympathy within his matches. I will never buy into this idea that once someone works over your leg, it needs to be rendered useless for the rest of the match. That's ludicrous. These are athletes. I have no problem buying into the concept of them being injured, but not paralyzed, by chop blocks and the like. 

Perhaps his greatest strength at this point, and this has been true for his entire heavyweight career, is that Ospreay as a Misawa-like ability to progress matches. You saw it with both Omega matches. You saw it with the Shingo matches. You saw it with the Danielson match. He can work for a half hour (or more) and never have it drag. I've been watching the guy for a decade and there's plenty of tags and trios and lesser singles matches where he's been great, but Ospreay is akin to a Misawa or a Hashimoto: his best work is done in the biggest moments.

In terms of his peers, I am a ZSJ voter and (likely) a Gunther voter. I should first note that the best matches either of those guys have had have been against Ospreay. I love ZSJ, he has more longevity than Ospreay, but Ospreay has lapped him in terms of his overall package. Again, I love Zack. I cannot fathom an argument that he's had a better career than Ospreay. Same for Gunther, who again, I love. 

At some point, when he gets over in every room he's in, when the best wrestlers in the world do their best work against him, and when forward-thinking critics can't stop throwing praise at him, shouldn't it be obvious that he's one of the 100 greatest wrestlers of all-time? I'm not even saying you have to like him as a wrestler. But how long can people dig their heels in on a guy who ticks so many boxes that we look for in high-level performers? I I don't particularly like Hiroshi Hase or Yoshiaki Fujiwara, but I vote for them, because they are overwhelmingly great. I am still bothered over how dismissive this specific voting pool was of lucharesu and junior heavyweight candidates 10 years ago, though, and I fear a similar trend happening with Ospreay, which would just be maddening. 

He's so comfortably a Top 50 wrestler to me, and realistically, he'll probably finish in the Top 30. There's nothing this guy does poorly. His candidacy at this point is so much more than just the sheer volume of great matches - which by the way, are some of the greatest matches I've ever seen. He's everything you should want in a pro wrestler. 

On 6/16/2021 at 1:53 PM, El Dragon said:

Feels like Jay got under talked about in 2016, and he’s another super interesting name to me. He’s been working 20 years now, with only a short break in there, and he’s been good-great most of it. 

Anyone have anything on standout performances in the last 5 years?

Briscoes vs. Rush & Dragon Lee from a few years ago was awesome. 

https://www.rohwrestling.com/top-videos/briscoes-vs-rush-and-dragon-lee

Both he and Mark were in the 60-70 range for me in 2021. I feel like if I go back and revisit their really early work, they could climb up the ranks for me. 

8 hours ago, WingedEagle said:

This match was indeed phenomenal and Kid was the highlight between his uphill fight at the end and how they used the mask.  I'm not sure how highly it would rate for people watching in a vacuum as opposed to having followed the path there, but the drama and work would probably stand out even without context.  

I think I find the "DG needs context" position to be a little overrated now for a few reasons. One, I just think the work speaks for itself. Context, for the most part, is no more important than emotional investment. Also, with the exits of guys like CIMA and Shingo, DG is working on the ground floor with the stories they're telling now. Maybe in five-ten years I'll be yelling about context again, but I don't think DG has ever been more accessible. Case in point, the Unit Disbands match. It's a pretty simple story. Old guys vs. young guys. What happens years from now with Dragon Kid and SB KENTo might right require some context, but for now I think it's self-explanatory. 

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1dK41137oe?from=search&seid=16633820914248083089

Here's the link to that match for anyone that hasn't seen it. I would put it in the Top 10 best Dragon System matches of all-time. 

Yeah, that's his ordeal. I don't know of a single DK match that was pushed in a big position that then underwhelmed. Of course, he also doesn't have the highest peaks. I ranked him in 2016, initially had him off in 2021, and then put him back on at the last second. His portfolio is just too strong. 

I would point to the Darkness Dragon match from 2002, a crazy, mask-ripping lucharesu match that is one of the high points of Toryumon, as one of his best matches. The other that I'd recommend is his match against PAC from 2019. By 2019, he's slowed quite quite a bit but he's become a much smarter worker. I personally prefer late stage DK because I think he's such a smart wrestler. 

Fwiw, the ROH six-man that everyone loves is a match built around DK. They went into that match with the intention of getting him over by the end of it. It worked. Also, the Unit Disbands match at the end of 2020 is largely worked around him. I can't recommend that match enough to people that haven't seen it. 

10 hours ago, Jetlag said:

Watched some Mochizuki today:

https://reverseviperhold.blogspot.com/2021/05/gwe-watching-masaaki-mochizuki.html

Pretty underwhelming. He lost a lot of energy compared to his 90s days. The worst thing is he comes across as an indy guy with a kicker gimmick rather than a karate dude. I was also super annoyed with the Toryumon matches all having pointless limb work and interferences. Doesn't help that Mochizuki doesn't have much charisma. They should've kept the role of evil karate guy for Okamura, who has much more sleazy charme.

Good reviews, but a bit of an odd list to work from. A lot of these matches are bogged down by M2K interference, which was a great storyline but could sometimes hinder match quality, or they are from a period of Mochizuki's career that was before he put it all together. I was actually just talking about Mochizuki on a podcast and how he doesn't really come into his own until around 2002, then from 2005-onwards is great on another level. 

I'd point you to these, assuming you haven't seen them: 

vs. Akira Tozawa

vs. Shun Skywalker

vs. Kzy

Would love to hear your thoughts on those. Hope you enjoy them. 

Didn't vote for Ultimo in 2016, not voting for him on my 2021 ballot, but I think he's someone who has a much stronger case than other people this thread seem to think. When I start doing GWE viewing for 2026, he's someone that I want to focus on. 

His biggest knock is that I struggle to think of a great Ultimo match from 2003-2019. That's an absurdly large gap of him being mediocre and it should probably disqualify him from being considered, but, 

1) I've been riffling through so much ULL footage recently and unmasked Ultimo is unreal. Such a sparkplug. I love all of his Casas matches both in ULL and then later on in Mexico. 

2) I love unmasked Ultimo and early stage Ultimo in Mexico. Granted, I'm not exactly the biggest lucha guy, but in my limited viewing, I think he's the highlight of almost every match I watch him in. This is one of my favorite lucha matches ever and he's a huge part of why it's so good. 

 

3) His Dragongate run has been largely non-consequential, but it's easily the most fun run of his post-injury career. His debut six-man was awesome. He had a pretty fun grapple-centric match against U-T last year, too. 

I really wish you could point to a handful of matches from the mid-2000's where Ultimo is awesome, but I'm not sure those exist. 

Brilliant wrestler. One of the best touring wrestlers there's ever been (has been described as having a crowd connection on the level of Liger or Kobashi in front of western audiences). His post-DG run has been very, very interesting. From a business standpoint, it's been a giant failure. In-ring, he's done some of the best work of his career. His crew is the only thing that ever drew a dime in Wrestle-1 and some of his multi-man matches from that time period are incredible...I just can't find them on the Internet right now. 

The narrative that he lacked strong singles matches was more prevalent 5 years ago. I don't buy into that now. There's an argument to be made that he lacks the one, true definitive singles match, but his singles portfolio is really strong. 

I had him at 37 in 2016. He finished better in my refreshed, five year update. The older stuff holds up really well and since the last vote, he had a really excellent Twin Gate reign and then crushed it in W-1 and DDT. 

A few match recs of stuff that is readily available online: 

CIMA vs. YOSSINO: 7/4/04

CIMA vs. PAC: 3/4/12

CIMA vs. Super Shisa: 2/20/14 (super tricked-out grappling match)

CIMA vs. Shingo Takagi: 12/27/15

CIMA vs. Akira Tozawa: 5/8/16

If anyone wants more recs, please let me know. Would be more than happy to help out. 

 

4 hours ago, Barbecue said:

 The wrestling equivalent of fast food, wouldn't make a top 10000 list. Might be the most baffling guy to be one of the consensus best in the world. He isn't just a bad worker, he is probably the most repetitive worker in all of Japan and one of the worst to do it in wrestling history.

This statement is inherently false. 

He finished in my Top 25 in 2016, right now he's my working #5, and there's a chance that by 2026, he'll be my #1. 

There's a million things I want to say about Shingo but I'll try to keep this post as concise as I can. It's a self-plug but I recommend people listen to the audio that me, Alan4L, and Mike Spears did a few months ago on The Torch. We broke down 20 or so Dragon System wrestlers that we think are worthy of discussing when it comes to GWE (I will get around to nominating some of the newer names, eventually). It's a two-parter because we went so in-depth on some guys, Shingo in particular. 

The thing about Shingo at this point is that he would make my ballot on his New Japan run alone. His output over the last two and a half years has just been stupid. There's the big stuff like the Ospreay matches (mainly the BOSJ Finals), the Dragon Lee match, and his output in the last two G1's, but there's a bunch of matches in smaller settings that he killed it in. The Shingo/BUSHI vs. Roppongi 3K matches might not look glamorous on paper, but basically all of them are 4-star junior tag matches. 

You take that output and add 15 years of being one of the best wrestlers in the world and suddenly you're looking at a guy who is one of the best to ever do it. I get that Dragongate isn't for everyone, which, fine, but as I said on a podcast recently, I really think people are doing themselves a disservice if they don't spend time with CIMA, Mochizuki, and Shingo for this project. 

Shingo is as good as anyone I've ever seen at working to his gimmick. He's a gym class bully. He's going to shove you into a locker and if you retaliate, he's going to make you sorry you did. Everything he does is done with a gross amount of intensity. In Dragongate, obviously, he came across as the ultimate alpha male. When he popped up in All Japan and Big Japan, he stood toe-to-toe with their heavyweights and still came across as a credible killer. Now that he's in New Japan, he's right there with the best and the meanest workers on the roster. He's been so good in New Japan that there's now an ongoing gimmick about wrestlers like Tanahashi dropping their character to talk about how blown away they are by Shingo. He's not a bump & feed guy. That's not who he is and it's not who he's supposed to be. He's an athletic freak who has insane strength, cardio, and technique. 

I think it really matters that Shingo has gotten over everywhere that he's worked. I just got through watching every Dragon Gate USA show ever and Shingo is the backbone of that promotion. When he's not there, his absence is felt. He came across like a God in Dragon Gate UK. He was great in All Japan, Big Japan, and always comes across like a star when he works produce shows. He's always crushed it in PWG and by the end of his ROH excursion, he felt like another strong addition to the roster. There's no longterm blemish in this guy's career. He was a very good rookie when he debuted in October 2004 and by the middle of 2005, was legitimately great. He hasn't turned back since. That's something about the Dragon System guys that I really hope people make note of this time around. I think people still think of DG as a youthful promotion (and while they do have the best fleet of young talent in wrestling), your original Ultimo trainees are 20 years into their career at this point. They have longevity on their side now. Assuming Takagi keeps going through 2026, he'll have 21 full years on his side and if the next five years look anything like the last 15, then we are in store for something special. 

This list is already out of date because of his New Japan Cup run, but a few months ago I was dissatisfied with Shingo's Matchguide on Cagematch so I put together a list of every Shingo match that I have given 4 or more stars to. You can look at it here. 

I'm not sure there's a singular Shingo match I can point to as his best performance. The 2015 Mochizuki match is brilliant but that's more of a Mochizuki match than a Shingo match. The same can be said for the CIMA match a month later. Outside of his New Japan work he's probably best known for his match against BxB Hulk in 2010, a hair vs. hair match at DG's biggest show of the year. 

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1xE411Q7jL?from=search&seid=15339773804642946060

There's a good chunk of Shingo out there on Dailymotion and BiliBili (plus what Ditch offers). The Hulk rematch from 2014, the two Susumu matches from 2016, and the YAMATO match from the summer of 2016 are all tremendous. 

I'm happy to help if people need more recommendations for any of the Dragon System guys. 

I'm finishing up a five year refresh of my 2016 ballot with Alan4L right now and Omega is the person who will benefit the most from the little bit of time that has passed since we last did GWE. I should've ranked him in 2016. He was one of my last cuts and I felt dumb about not including him shortly after the fact. He's a Top 40 guy for me at this point. I think he's undeniably brilliant. The Okada matches, mainly the 2/3 falls match, are some of the greatest matches I've ever seen. He has the Ishii series, the Naito series, and the Goto matches. There's nothing this guy can't do. He's worked as a junior successfully, he's worked as a heavyweight ace successfully, he's been a face, he's been a heel, he's been in great tag matches, he's been the best singles match wrestler in the world. 

Like Quentin said, if you don't like him, I get it, but I think he's someone that does too many things at an elite level to ignore. 

Alan4L set up a Slack that you can find on his Twitter. That's where others have joined us in discussion. We have a few different channels set up there to discuss various topics. 

Alan and I will be posting our revamped ballots in April 2021, yes. Again, this is not meant to be a formal project like it was in 2016, but we'd love for others to join us to talk about what they're watching. 

By no means have Alan and I intended to make this as all encompassing as it was in 2016. We both felt like the wrestling world has changed a lot in five years (plus with the pandemic we've been watching much more classic wrestling than current wrestling), so we felt like refreshing our ballots. We invited others to do the same if they'd like. It's a shortened timeline than what we did five years ago, but it's not supposed to be the massive overtaking that the 2016 project was. We're using the same criteria that was used in 2016. We did a podcast (up on the Torch site) explaining everything. 

It looks like we're going to have a website helping us out as a centralized hub but that isn't nailed down just yet. 

Come 2024, I'll want to rally the troops again and do a big, expansive project. This time around it's simply a refresh to see how our tastes have changed, represent guys who have made it onto our lists over the last 5 years, and to have a little fun. Alan and I are going to be doing some pods about it over the next few months and we simply encouraged people to join in if they're enjoying the episodes. 

(I also am a Bock voter.)

Once again encouraging people on this forum to research and vote for CIMA. Please come to me with any questions you may have about his candidacy. 

22 hours ago, Brian Elliott said:

Watched this today. A fantastic tag team dynamic at a perfect pace. @InYourCase had it right about being an underrated classic.

Glad you checked it out. Watching it back last week, I was so stunned by the pacing of this match. There's no dead space. It feels like a 2020 match with the stiffness and intensity of an 80's All Japan match. It's a thing of beauty. 

Is there anyone here who hadn't seen Shingo before his New Japan run? Would love to hear your thoughts on his overall package. Thought he was beyond great in Dragon Gate but I know most people here don't watch that promotion. 

3 hours ago, Migs said:

Even just scanning some GIFs... this feels like a brilliant, low key move by AEW. The athleticism level and creativity is mind blowing.

It's a tremendous move. The four from the DG exodus are top tier wrestlers, and the OWE kids from China, while all rough around the edges, all have terrific potential. 

https://www.voicesofwrestling.com/2019/01/09/getting-to-know-owes-strong-hearts/

Info on CIMA and some of the people that will (more than likely) be involved. If anyone has questions on Strong Hearts, please let me know 

On 10/4/2018 at 7:33 PM, elliott said:

 

Oh cool. I've always thought of CIMA as an interesting candidate just as an outsider. I haven't followed his promotion since the very early 2000s and have only seen a few matches here and there past that. He stands out in my memories of someone who was really great when I watched it, but greater interest in other styles drew me away from him and the promotions he worked in. The few things I've read about him do intrigue me and I'd love to see a detailed case.

 

Was Dragon Gate the #2 promotion in Japan for the entire 15 years? If not, how long was it the #2 promotion? What did they draw on average? What were some of their biggest shows? What are some of the company's biggest/most memorable matches? Was CIMA in all/most/some of them? Was he the undisputed top draw of the company or more of a package with other guys? My impression was always that Dragon Gate was a stable based company with numerous folks cycled in and out of the main events. Was CIMA the fixture?

 

 

How big are these shows?

Recommend me some matches. One of my big disappointments from the Greatest Matches Project is we don't have anyone pimping Dragon Gate stuff. CIMA always stood out in the late 90s and early 00s as one of the most interesting and best of the new wave of juniors. I'd love to see his biggest and best matches.

 

Can you speak more to the importance of this?

Please do and thank you!

 

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. 

I think it is a safe bet to say that Dragon Gate was the #2 promotion from 2009-onwards, maybe even a little sooner because New Japan was in such rough shape at the tail end of the 2000's. By 2011 they are a definitive #2 behind New Japan and have remained that way ever since. There are some that will argue that DDT is as big, if not bigger than Dragon Gate, but DDT continues to be unable to draw outside of Tokyo. They had some ridiculous Korakuen sellout streak (1,850 a month) that was ended when CIMA left the company. I want to say the streak went for over 2 years, but I am not 100% positive when it started. All I know is that I started following Dragon Gate religiously in 2013 and since then, it has been a very rare occurrence that DG has not sold out Korakuen, and again, the sellout streak officially ended after CIMA left the company. 

Outside of the monthly Korakuens which are a big part of their business, they run 5 big PPV-like shows a year, with the biggest being their Kobe World show in July. Prior to this summer, numbers have always been inflated for these shows so it is impossible to say for sure what numbers they were doing, but I've never heard any rumors about shows flopping at the gate before CIMA left. I firmly believe that they were drawing 6-8K at Kobe World Hall every July for an extended period of time, even if they were saying 8-10K. 

Dragon Gate is based around units, but the leaders of those units are always the true draws. CIMA has always been the figurehead of the company. There have been numerous times where myself or other Western fans have criticized CIMA for putting himself over, but the fact is he has always drawn. That is backed up by the fact that his appearances in DDT and W-1 have immediately become the most popular videos on their YouTube pages ever, and in W-1, droves of people are leaving their shows after his matches. People are paying specifically to see CIMA and his new Strong Hearts unit. 

W-1 has never drawn and now their big shows with CIMA are seeing a spike in attendance. He's the semi-main at the DDT Sumo Hall show this week, and that show is probably the biggest annual non-NJPW show in Japan every year at this point. The fact that he came right into the company and was announced for a semi-main match against Konosuke Takeshita (DDT's golden boy) is a huge deal. I believe I was told that there was a spike in ticket sales after CIMA was announced, but I'd have to double check with someone that follows DDT closer. 

In terms of his influence, I listed guys that have had successful careers in large part due to CIMA. The career of Jack Evans alone does not make CIMA a HOFer, but with guys like him, PAC, and Ricochet, they would have NEVER reached the heights they would have without CIMA. The gaijins that last in Dragon Gate have all eventually elevated their careers in a big way. He also gets credit for training Shingo Takagi, who I had in my Top 15 for GWE. Takagi was the first graduate of the Dragon Gate Dojo and for a very long time was the #2 in the promotion behind CIMA. It's funny now, as the two have real life heat and it is mostly due to the way Takagi wrestles. CIMA hates his style and said that if Takagi's style ever became the house style, the promotion would soon fold. That's just a small anecdote. 

Amazingly, I think CIMA's weakest category is his in-ring. There is a great debate in the DG community over what CIMA's greatest singles match is, because no one seems to have a truly good answer. We just discovered that CIMA has a shockingly low amount of singles matches in Korakuen Hall, which is shocking considering that he's wrestled there on a monthly basis for 20 years now. The stock answer on CIMA's best singles match is his 2015 bout with the aforementioned Takagi. Takagi was on a run as champion where he was taking down Dragon Gate's first generation of stars (CIMA, Don Fujii, Masaaki Mochizuki) and it concluded with this match against CIMA where towards the end, CIMA starts to do his buddies signature moves to try to overcome Takagi. It's a beautiful match. 

I'm always amazed that the PWO-type crowd isn't more into CIMA because he wrestles in such a different way than most contemporary puro stars. He works a lot of "TV style matches" and eventually builds to these epics with crazy callbacks, including his work in tags and trios. I'll try to dig up some DG gems to post here, but this match from July was brilliantly laid out. Having watched hundreds and hundreds of CIMA matches over the years, this match felt like he was calling all of the shots. This match basically felt like his vision of pro wrestling. One of my favorite matches of the year. 

And finally, I think reducing him the level of Hayabusa is completely unfair. Every aspect of his case is stronger. Ibushi I can't speak on because there's so much more to unfold there, but if CIMA retired tomorrow, the puro industry would suffer as a result. He is a legend. If he was in a company that was respected by the Japanese press or was covered consistently by Dave, he would have gone in two years ago. I want to make it clear that if I could vote, I'd be voting for Akiyama (and probably Taue) but even if CIMA wasn't selling out Budokan Hall monthly, he's never been on top of a sinking promotion like Akiyama. Taue was never the main draw in All Japan. Akiyama doesn't have the influence CIMA has because to my knowledge he isn't a renounced trainer and for God knows what reason, he's never caught on with Western fans the way that Kobashi, Misawa, and Kawada have. He smokes Taue in influence. Forget it. I think CIMA is overall a better worker than Taue, and not far off from being a better worker than Akiyama. 

The last thing I'll say is that Joe Gagne brought up a good point when he mentioned that he won't be voting for CIMA this year because he wants to see how the Strong Hearts invasions play out. That is entirely fair,  and to me it's the only logical reason not to vote for CIMA, because he's arguably having his best business year ever this year. Still, I think he's already done more than enough to warrant getting in. 

Sorry this was so long. 

 

I'm not sure what it's going to take to get people to vote CIMA in, but there's no one on the ballot more deserving than CIMA. Just a brief overview: 

-Worked on top of the #2 promotion in Japan for 15 years. When he split in May, attendance dipped rapidly. 

-Since leaving, he's worked in Wrestle-1 and DDT and has spiked interest. Is easily the best draw W-1 has ever had. He's semi-main eventing DDT's biggest show of the year in a few weeks. 

-I had him in my 30's for GWE. He's a generational talent who doesn't have bad matches with anyone. Can do lucha grappling, can fly, can work the contemporary super puro style. He's proven he can do it all. 

-Jack Evans, Matt Sydal, PAC, Ricochet, Rich Swann, and Apollo Crews would not have been signed without CIMA. There is a clear "before CIMA' and "after CIMA" difference with these wrestlers. 

I can always go more in-depth if anyone has interest or wants to discuss it, but I fully understand that PWO is more concerned about lucha guys getting in (and I don't think that's wrong of them)