Kiyoshi Tamura

[10.0] "Kiyoshi Tamura might be one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, i think he is behind Volk Han in terms of technicality. But Tamura is the most athletic gifted wrestler ever, if you seen his matches its very hard to keep going at a pace he does in the ring, he has the best cardio ive seen from any wrestler. Although he has had a short career, that short career made him one of the all time greats. Cant believe we missed this dude in his prime."

[10.0] "One of the five greatest wrestlers ever. There aren't enough superlatives to describe this man, and it really doesn't do enough, but I can try. The greatest technician of all time, the greatest catch wrestler of all time, the greatest shooter of all time, the greatest wrestler to mixed martial artist and back to wrestler, etc;. Although his career was relatively short and his match catalogue isn't massive, he is quite possibly the wrestler best fitted for the adage "quality over quantity." It would be one thing if he just had the trilogy with Yamamoto, which was already great in its own right, but when you take into consideration his work with Volk Han, which is, at the absolute worst, the best non-Pillars rivalry of the 90s, and it could easily be argued to be on the same level. The comparison to the four pillars is oddly apt here because, despite being philosophically different in perhaps every sense, really the only person I can think of who matches his energy as a babyface is none other than the legendary Kenta Kobashi, and although I think Kobashi was a little bit better, the difference is practically negligible, and Tamura probably made babyface fire work in his shoot-style environment than any of his contemporaries and 99.9% of wrestlers period. I've seen Tamura receive Austin-level pops just from finally be able to lock in an armbar. Given the more serious crowds he was drawing, that is supremely impressive. In an all-time fantasy draft, Kiyoshi Tamura has a very strong argument for being the first guy off the board. He was, in fact, like THAT."

[10.0] "Just started watching shoot style stuff and no one has connected with me as much as Kiyoshi has. This dude might be the best technically sound wrestler I've ever seen, his trilogy with Volk han had endlessly seemless grappling exchanges, I've never seen anything as smooth as them trading submission after submission. Kiyoshi also has some amazing looking strikes but what I think he has the most is he just has this energy that makes you want to cheer for him and makes the matches that much more compelling."

[10.0] "Kiyoshi Tamura is arguably the greatest pro wrestler ever. He was able to have great shoot-style matches that were very realistic for pro wrestling standards. He worked at a level very few have been able to reach. Especially his work from 1991 until 1999 was amazing."

[10.0] "Zero questions asked - the greatest shoot style wrestler of all time. Incredibly athletic and dynamic - can simply do it all when it comes to grappling and striking, but also a masterful & dynamic performer. Can be a great bully or underdog who has to sell and truly suck a viewing audience in to what they're viewing with full-on suspension of disbelief. I don't think it's even much of an argument to say he had the three greatest matches in the style of all time with three completely different opponents (Volk Han in '97, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka in '98, Yoshihisa Yamamoto in '99), all in RINGS. Would have loved to see how he fared branching out more into one of the more traditional pro wrestling promotions in the early 00s but he switched his focus more to MMA at that point - but with right around 100 pro wrestling matches total, his legacy remains in tact as one of the best performers in this sport ever."

[10.0] "Akin to Volk Han in my view this just does not miss very highly technically skilled with High level mat work and grappling skill iv never seen him a bad match in tem of structure or execution."

[10.0] "The man wrestled just over 100 matches in his career, but man, what a legacy he left. A shoot style wrestler turned into a formidable MMA fighter, Tamura was as talented as they come in the ring. Amazing athlete, tremendous striker, amateur wrestling-style grappler and submission artist, his biggest asset perhaps was his selling which, in the hyper-realistic setting of shoot-style promotions, added an incredible amount of emotional depth to his matches. What a wrestler, what a fighter, what a man."

[10.0] "Amazing technician and was equally good in full legit shoots. Great charisma, a godly look, great strikings, good fundamentals both puroresu and amateur wrestling skills, great submissions and struggle on the ground and sold like a pro. The most exceptional thing about Tamura is that he could make a legit shoot match look like a worked shoot match when he wanted. Let me say that again: He could make legit fighters have a match that looked like a shoot style worked match. An aspirational figure and one of the three pillars of the final evolution of shootstyle w/ Masa Funaki and Takada."

[10.0] "The greatest shoot style wrestler of all time. This man redefined what shoot style could be, as he was somehow able to express the pure emotion of a Kenta Kobashi match within the confines of the most hyper-realistic style of wrestling ever seen. His 30 minute draw with Kohsaka remains one of the greatest matches ever, and his feud with Volk Han is remembered fondly to this day, at least by those lucky enough to witness it. It is a tragedy that the style he mastered waned so quickly in popularity after his peak. Luckily, under his supervision of GLEAT, shoot style is making something of a mini-resurgence in Japan."

[10.0] "Kiyoshi Tamura has a legit claim to the title of the greatest professional wrestler of all time from a skill-level and technical standpoint. Along with Tsuyoshi Kohsaka and Kazushi Sakuraba, he might be one of the best pure wrestlers ever. Not only was he naturally gifted with athleticism and conditioning, he knew how to work a good professional wrestling match and could make anyone look good, including complete stiffs. His ability translated to the MMA world quite well, which speaks volumes about how good he was and what gifts he was giving to the professional wrestling world. While people may knock him for his relatively short resume and exclusiveness to shoot-style, I don't think we'll ever see a wrestler like Kiyoshi Tamura again and that should tell the story. He had a deep connection with Japanese fans at the time, and he was always the fan-favorite wherever he went. His promotion, U-Style, likely survived on his own name alone for a few years. He was also a drawing power for sure, becoming one of the top stars in RINGS and UWFi and drawing houses for both promotions. Definitely one my top 10 wrestlers of all time."

[10.0] "Kiyoshi Tamura was one of the best wrestlers in the world in his prime, but almost nobody knows that today because the style he was so great at has faded into obscurity. Tamura was awesome at having great matches in the worked shoot style (UWF-I, RINGS); his matches with Volk Han and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka were classics. Tamura was just as talented at being able to make his matches look like shoots, and Tamura's match had few holes in them, and at the same time they were still great, which speaks to his level of ability."

[10.0] "Fantastic wrestler. Tremendous striking, great mat grappling, highly charismatic, his movement was really inspiring to watch. Something very appealing by just seeing him move around the ring. He may had wrestled shoot style but he understood how to tell that pure wrestling story no matter what. Whether that's with Vader, Volk Han or Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, he got it. Love him, probably just outside of my all time favourites."

[10.0] "For me personally, I find it impossible to talk about Kiyoshi Tamura without mentioning Volk Han as well. These two are, in my insignificant opinion, the standard in which all other shoot style wrestlers should be measured against. Where as Volk Han was an effortless, unfeeling submission machine, Tamura was more emotive. He was able to inject a sense of urgency into his matches that one would not usually associate with the worked shoot style (see: His 9/26/1997 rematch against Volk Han and his classic with Yoshihisa Yamamoto on 6/24/1999). His facials as well as his emotive striking create something that is not only captivating, but downright charismatic."

[10.0] "Tremendous wrestler and fighter ! Starting his impressive career in UWFi, moving on to MMA in RINGS, Tamura has done it all ! Fought and beaten some of the best. The former champion of RINGS and U-Style is definetely a legend of fighting arts !"