CheapPop1999 said (from discord):

A fantastic modern day big man who used his size to his advantage in every single match in a very old-school way. He's always the center of attention in every match he's in because he's a massive behemoth of a man no matter who else in there. He was a very reliable presence in puro for a ten year run, and is one of the best flavor of the month monsters for your ace to climb of all time.

Match recs:
w/ Takeshi Rikio vs Kenta Kobashi and Jun Izumida (NOAH 1/22/2006)
vs. Brock Lesnar (NJPW 3/19/2006)
w/ Ryoto Hama vs Strong BJ (AJPW 1/3/2012)
vs. Masakatsu Funaki (AJPW 1/26/2013)
Anything against Akiyama (my fav is AJPW 4/25/2013)
w/ Ryoto Hama vs Burning (Akiyama and Shiozaki) (AJPW 6/23/2013)
vs. Go Shiozaki (AJPW 5/21/2015)

Definitely controversial for sure. Like many big-men wrestlers he's more of a bar of quality for other workers as to how much they can get out of him rather than anything he could do himself: I remember watching some of his spectacle matches against Kobashi and Sasuke and definitely enjoying them, but at the same time Ake as a worker is very limited, got better when he was more conditioned and actually leaned out a little later on, even had a fairly solid AJPW run (as you can see from almost all of the recommendations being from then) however I never seen him as a top worker bar the fact he could use his size well in matches. 

Is he bad as a wrestler per-se? Not really, but at the same time he has a wealth of bad to really rubbish showings. I like him, for the record, but I'm also not going to stick him on a top 100 list. Bob Sapp has more of a chance of getting on than he does, has the exact same positives, and Sapp has about as many good showings if not more while lacking the dregs that Ake has.

 

 

Don't really think Akebono will make my list either, but I do think he is really good at his specific thing and should be considered, if you're someone who likes the old-school giant gimmicks. He does that better than anyone I've seen since 2000.

I'm always pleasantly surprised by Akebono matches. I realize I'm grading on a curve; I never expect much from a 40-something retired sumo wrestler.

A lot of modern wrestling lacks a sense of struggle. Akebono matches are nothing but struggle, most of it against himself. He sweats at an all-time level. You can feel the difficulty he has picking himself off the mat. When he finally lumbers into position to do damage, it means something.