October 18, 20159 yr comment_5705433 Never got the hate for that guy. Then again, haven't watch a Marufuchi match in like 8 years or so.
October 18, 20159 yr comment_5705436 After reading years of criticism against him and pretty much everyone (even Alan!) turning on him........eh I still like him. He's too creative for his own good and some of his shit just doesn't work in practice but he can be a great foil for a variety of opponents and I like most of his goofy offence.
October 18, 20159 yr comment_5705438 I love his match with Taue, great match. This. Plus there's a Kanemoto match from 2010. Essentially Marufuji works when someone is working overtime to reign his shit in or beat the shit out of him. Or both.
October 18, 20159 yr comment_5705442 Never got the hate for that guy. Then again, haven't watch a Marufuchi match in like 8 years or so. How about this: 1. he doesn't know how to sell. 2. he doesn't know how to do any offense that doesn't look like crap. Even as spotfests his matches have nothing going for them. They are usually slow, uneventful, low on crowd reaction due to Marufuji being confusing rather than engaging. etc. And he really doesn't have many great spots.
October 18, 20159 yr comment_5705482 I enjoy his tag work with KENTA, as well as some of the singles matches they had together. But he's usually pretty hit or miss for me. His offense ranges from really awesome to complete shit, sometimes within the span of a few seconds. Ditto his selling. I don't see him as a guy who would make my list, but I don't hate him or anything.
October 18, 20159 yr comment_5705509 After reading years of criticism against him and pretty much everyone (even Alan!) turning on him........eh I still like him. He's too creative for his own good and some of his shit just doesn't work in practice but he can be a great foil for a variety of opponents and I like most of his goofy offence.Agree with a lot of this. Marufuji is making my list. His highs have been too high to keep him off of a list like this. He gets lazy and a little stale at times, but hating on Marufuji has almost become a meme. When he's on, he's great. Will finish on the lower fourth of my list, but he'll be on there.
February 28, 20232 yr comment_6000128 I was the high voter on Naomichi back in 2016, I'll probably drop him a few places lower this time around. I 100% understand not liking this guy at all, but he's my thing, especially when in tag matches where I think his lack of ability to create a compelling opening to a match gets covered for. I'm a sucker for matches that have a good sense of escalation throughout and time the ending at the absolute cresendo of it and that's definitely how this guys matches usually go. The hook kick from weird seemingly impossible angles is cool as shit. What I watched for this so far and my match ratings Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Makoto Hashi (12/09/03) **** Naomichi Marufuji vs KENTA (29/10/06) ****¼ Jay & Mark Briscoe vs Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura (02/03/08) ****½ Koji Kanemoto vs Naomichi Marufuji (03/05/10) ***¾ Naomichi Marufuji vs Minoru Suzuki (23/12/15) **** Naomichi Marufuji vs Kazuchika Okada (10/10/16) **** Naomichi Marufuji vs Kento Miyahara (30/04/18) ***¼
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