Discuss here.

Not much to say about him except that he's been consistently good for a long period of time and will rank in the bottom half for me.

Best matches? What are the high points/good runs I should seek out. I have seen a lot of his work over the years, but he never stuck out as a guy that was better than pretty good. That said I have been dead wrong before, and don't want to leave stones unturned. Give me some recommendations.

The Saito vs Honda match from 2003 is the first one that jumps out to me.

Him vs. Honda, Kobashi and Marufuji are among my favourite NOAH singles matches. Great tag worker with a nice unique dynamic to Akiyama and Inoue.

 

I'd actually be interested in going back and checking out his 90s work. There's a super intense rookie match vs. Orihara somewhere, and I also remember a good outting from him against Koichiro Kimura in W*ING of all feds during his rookie year.

Really good tag worker, but I don't see him matching up well with some of the other guys of his era, even though I did like NOAH mid-card matches as much as anyone. Won't be on my list.

Good in WAR as this unseasoned pitdog that just hurls stiff karate strikes at everyone who tries tangling with him, NJPW stuff was similarly the same if a bit less explosive as he mixed into the usual cooking pot of styles around at the time. 

Had a pretty great post-prime career as a NOAH loyalist with definite unrealised potential as a low-key threat to the main players. Kinda got complicit after a while and lost his edge as time and age crept up despite having a really entertaining underdog dynamic with him and Inoue. A lot of his 2010's material in particular just wasn't much to talk about ngl. That sours any prospect of a top 100 run for me.