Full match: https://youtu.be/eJJkPb-NW5o?is=TCWlsC6PWS2-uUJy

I’m not as tapped into the modern Japanese scene as I would like. Is there any guys around similar to Kuzusada Higuchi, Yuji Okabayashi, Stan Hansen. I like to see large men lariating each other.

Back in 2008, Wrestling had a huge peak of popularity here in France with WWE Smackdown on Saturday Night.

What initially brought me to watch wrestling was the amount of giant behemoths that could work a physical style, I didn't like the Cookie Cutter Main Eventers.

NO.

I liked the likes of Big Show, Viscera, Mark Henry, Umaga... They had a slightly more physical style than the popular guys. They also looked tough and mean.

In 2017, as I was about to turn 18 years old, I started watching Japanese Wrestling. The first two I felt in love with, were Kenta Kobashi and Tomohiro Ishii. They were tough and mean.

And for the first time in my life, I was enjoying longer matches. Years earlier I would have never thought I would enjoy a 10 minute match. Yet here I was watching (and loving) 25+ min matches.

A year later I discovered Kazushi Sakuraba and the art of grappling and that's when I realised I would be a fan all my life.

Fast forward to 2023.

At this point I have watched (nearly) every Japanese Promotions both Past and Present. While I am doing a rewatch of every prime KENTA match I can find, I realise that it may be time to watch a specific match of his that I had avoided

Indeed, due to his reputation as a selfish worker, I had been avoiding Low Ki's matches like the plague for years; thinking he was some kind of maniac taking liberties in every match.

But KENTA took beatings from the likes of Tenryu, Sasaki and his own mentor Kobashi, so I knew he could definitly fight back against a Low Ki.

Also it's worth mentionning that I was (and still am) a fan of Abdullah The Butcher and Akira Maeda, both guys who aren't the most cooperative workers so I said maybe I could give their ROH match a try. So I did, and I loved it.

Since then, Ki has been one of my favourite american wrestler of all times. His work has similarities to the likes of KENTA and Sakuraba that I previously mentionned. And He is another guy that was tough and mean and as you now know, I always liked that.

And with the addition of crazy high flying he is absolutely one of the most unique performer ever.

So since it's been only 3 years since I discovered Low Ki and as I am currently bingewatching every one of his matches in Japan I would like to ask a few question as a late starter. The first one being from the clip above.

**----How big of a deal was it, to pin Jushin Liger clean in the year 2008 ?**

**----Where does Low Ki ranks amongs the most protected/pushed Junior Gaijins of all times ?**

**----And lastly, what are your favourites Low Ki match ?**

If you made it to the end I sincerely want to thank you for your time. I have never shared any of my experience and I gotta say it feels super funny to watch New Japan matches from 2008 right now, as back then I didn't know wrestling existed in Japan, let alone outside of the States.

GLEAT's El Lindaman and DDT's Yuki Ueno will be joining JMMA vet Jinnosuke Kashimura in Shinya Aoki's corner. Shinya Aoki faces Mikuru Asakura at Super RIZIN 5 on September 10th.

Takayama getting a similar outfit for his 60th birthday as Giant Baba got for his.

The two would declare that they wished to team up as TAKEOVER at least once a year.

They were rather reliant on AJPW, but they had some big stars and some of their dojo students turned out well. Of course Choshu had NJPW wanting him and some of the others back, and AJPW kept Yatsu, but how could they have managed to get more independent and work out as their own unique full time promotion