Kazunari Murakami

"In my opinion, he's an incredibly underrated wrestler. One of the best exponents of the shoot-style, he skillfully utilized technique and chaos in his matches. I recommend everyone watch his recent match teaming with Abe against Nomura and Ishikawa, as well as his solo matches against Ishikawa, Otani, Nagata, and many others. It's a shame he didn't win his first title until 2024. True "Heisei Terrorist""

[10.0] "Overall career this guy is probably around an 8 but in the 00s this guy was something else. Possibly the most naturally intensely terrifying sadists ever in pro wrestling. Murakami looks absolutely insane. Murakami wrestles like a control maniac, he looks sloppy but in a way that adds to his intensity making him look like a genuine unhinged psychopath. Murakamis face looks evil without doing his Demonrats c faces he does. On top of this hes a legit mma fighter and Judoka which he will also use. Personally he is one of my all time favorites, he can easily leave a mark on you once you watch some of his best matches. Possibly the best mma guy to come in during Inokism to be able to just go full into creating a unique pro wrestling aura. Murakami could pull off a good match back during his first run and even to some extent in Big Mouth Loud, however due to age and injuries his more recent runs he can still be very intense and scary looking but his body (mostly his legs) cant go much. Heisei Terrorist is a very fitting nickname based off of how he terrorizes people in the ring and is a badass nickname that he is deserving of. Even if his performance may not be the best now I love just seeing Big Murakami in a ring."

[8.0] "Whenever I watch him there's something I instantly understand. Maybe it's those menacing eyes, the bald head (for a chunk of his career). Maybe a little bit of everything. When I watch Kazunari Murakami, I think of hatred. A beastly heel shooter, Murakami had a pretty good career. He's probably the best of his counterparts, and I think it's just because how seriously he took it. Makai Club is awesome, looking back at things. What I think holds Murakami back is that he has a really limited output. A good wrestler held back by the sheer lack of time in a wrestling ring."

[9.0] "Murakami definitely isn't one of those guys you can just randomly flip on a random match and be instantly amazed, but he's EASILY the best out of the Inoki-Ism Chosen Ones, mainly because he's so good at being a crazy bloodthirsty maniac that just wants to get in there, beat the piss out of you with stiff punches to the face and have a laugh about it during and after the beating. He's great at showcasing just this utterly vile character that's out to just hurt people and nothing else, and his commitment to the bit even when in nothing D-tier indie shows against whoever is really something. In Battlarts is where the majority of his best work is in terms of workrate, but if you like his more eccentric shit then his BML and ZERO-ONE runs have him almost be a cartoonish level of grungy backstreet brawler, instantly entertaining in anything he shows up in. His style doesn't always hit, but when it does you can really tell just by how great his showings are. It helps that he's legitimately quite good at shoot-style grappling and whatnot, so he gets to surprise people now and then when he pulls out the technical work. He's also rather underrated at selling and bumping, knowing when to dominate and when to let the babyface run him down with shots, his timing is top notch. Overall, super strong wrestler that even today has some value despite the brain damage + age."

[9.0] "Sincerely, I can't name a man who bring a better sense of urgency and more intensity than him. Incredible character work. There are few things more entertaining than a lunatic evil face Murakami throwing punches and stomps in the corner or licking blood of the poor soul who faces him. Beyond his amazing matches against Nagata in NJPW, he has a great bunch of less known but strong performances in BattlArts and Big Mouth Loud."

[10.0] "So different from anyone else in wrestling, gotta give him a 10 just for living his gimmick and being a badass"

[4.0] "Differently from Ogawa, Murakami looked more passionate into puroresu, alwaysbì bringing a lot of hate, urgency and being professional while looking like an ass-kicker."

[9.0] "Very underrated wrestler especially when u take into account how loved Shibata is and how much influence Murakami had on him. Played his intense lunatic character really well and had some of the best matches in NJPW history with Nagata, Shibata, and Enson Inoue. His indy work after NJPW is really good as well"

[9.0] "Very much intensity incarnated. At his prime he was able to make every one of his attacks look like it could end the match at every second."

[8.0] "Kazunari Murakami was a great heel, and a very underrated worker. There was nobody better at doing an out of control brawl that looked like it was truly out of control."

[9.0] "Again, like others say: he is the end result of an era that people hate, but he is very much a wrestler in the style of Shibata with the mean spiritedness of current day Minoru Suzuki! Absolutely horrifying expressions, carried himself off in the ring like a damn villain from a fighting game - Ryuji Yamazaki (? ? ) in specific. Never injured anyone despite looking dangerous, never no-sold like other monster heels and his offense looked terrifying. The hate is undeserved, especially in an age where Minoru Suzuki is (rightfully) deified."

[9.0] "I get the hate. He is associated with Inoki-ism and people hate the period, but I love him. He is so psychotic. Incredible facial features. The ability to make you hate him but has an odd way to garner sympathy whilst remaining a bad ass. His performance in the Ogawa vs Iizuka/Hashimoto match was top notch."

[9.0] "I felt like I had to balance this out since Murakami's rating appears to be more of a referendum on shoot style and anoki-ism than the man himself. Great aura and presence. He brought a credible shoot style but also felt like a wild memphis brawler. I would compare him to Pentagon JR in the sense that he was not a great technical wrestler but got by on being terrifying and wild brawling."

[10.0] "He has really good facial expressions and he's very good at baking. He baked stuff to give to the press when getting interviewed in the IGF office that he has taken ownership of (stolen). The press seemed to like the stuff he baked."

[10.0] "I'll preface my comment with this: The style that Murakami indulges in, that other shooter-types do, is not for everyone. I can understand most of the low ratings here. With that said, if you at all like shoot-style, you're looking at one of the best to ever do it in Murakami. His aura always manages to bring such gravitas to whatever match he's involved in, it always ends up feeling like a real fight, sans script, sans spots, all the crap stripped away, leaving only two dudes fucking each other up. With Murakami, I find myself viscerally reacting to a lot of what he does, it provokes such an excitement that can't be found for me in the types of wrestling that those who rate him lowly would likely prefer. Plus, he keeps his stuff short, something that a lot of people could learn from."