Kensuke Sasaki

[10.0] "king's road at its finest. go watch his match with kobashi if you don't already know, but there's a reason his rating is so high"

[10.0] "A big bad, S.O.B who I'd love to have on my side in a fight. Kensuke Sasaki is as they say, tougher than shoe leather. He could square off with Haku and make it believable. That would've been a great match there."

[10.0] "Kensuke Sasaki is pretty easy to describe. He's a big, mean sunuvabitch who is gonna hit his opponent as hard as possible until he wins. That's my type of guy."

"Kensuke Sasaki is one of the best hard-hitting wrestlers of all time. Matches like vs. Kobashi or vs. Nagata stand out as hard hitting brawls that just get your attention and you cannot look away. One of the greats for sure."

[10.0] "Sasaki is one in a million not because he is any phenomenal puro wrestlers in the late 90s to the early 00s, in fact he isn't as good as a dozen of NOAH wrestlers in that "workrate" department, but his capability to have a hard-hitting, high-intensity, beautifully worked match without the 30 minutes drama and tedious back-and-forth near falls like everyone else, especially in the context of this modern era of wrestling. He can fit a 25-minute match into a 15, if not 10, and it will be the best 15 you would ever see. Straight to the point is what should be appreciated more."

[9.0] "A big mean looking motherfucker who caves peoples chests in and yeets them across the ring? What more do you need in a pro wrestler? His work as freelancer is consistently very good and interesting. Been a number of all timer matches. Plus Kensuke Office is one of my favourite ever promotions/factions."

[6.0] "Only seen his WCW days from 1992ish-1995. Pretty good technical wrestler but not on the same level as Muta in the work department."

[9.0] "He's not perfect by any means, sometimes he could really phone in his performances, but when he was on, he was amazing. A versatile talent who could throw big clubbing blows and slams and when he wanted to, could use his athleticism to great effect. He got this great presence as an undersized badass who looked like a proper killer. Sasaki could stand toe to toe with any other legend from the late 90s and early 2000s."

[10.0] "I'm a little more familiar with Kensuke's game, and for a while I thought he was a peg lower than some of the puro greats from the 90s and the 00s. But what's there is truly a versatile, excellent worker. Whether he's trading bombs with Takayama or Nagata, or his legendary match with Kenta Kobashi that has been etched into the ethos of pro wrestling. While Sasaki might've been a little rougher around the edges in the 1990s, once the new millennium hit, you got one of the best in the world."

[8.0] "Sasaki is someone whose work has grown on me over the years. I didn't really enjoy his team with Road Warrior Hawk that much, but when he started getting more of a singles push in the 90's he blossomed into a solid worker who could hang on the mat as well as delivering impressive power moves and snug strikes. Yes, Sasaki was probably over pushed in the earlier stages of his career due to being a protege of Riki Choshu, but by the end of the 90's I'd argue that he was a very good worker indeed, and by the 00's he was a very reliable top star who could deliver good to great matches on a regular basis. His most famous match is probably against Kenta Kobashi at the Tokyo Dome in 2005, but if you look through his match guide on here you'll find a lot of great bouts that are worth watching"

"It? s so funny, I started watching WCW in 92 and I wasn? t aware of the Road Warriors at all. Soon after, I got to watch Japanese wrestling and I saw Hawk and Power as the Hellraisers vs Scott Norton and (I cannot say for sure, who his partner was, maybe Hercules, maybe Halme, have no idea). I was fascinated by all three of these guys and I was quite shocked, when I later saw LOD - Hawk teaming up with Animal, because Ive never seen Animal before and for me it was simply Hawk & Power (Warrior). Kensuke looked super strong, I watched some of his much later matches, but mostly rewatched my childhood memories. I will admit, I am not all that familiar, but hey - this nostalgia thing is strong. He was one of the first guys I remember seeing in wrestling and I was impressed."

[7.0] "Honestly, he shouldn't be this high rating wise. Sasaki was pushed mega hard due to his connections to the still very much over Riki Choshu but he wouldn't be particularly fantastic for a good few years. That being said, when the chips were down the guy was a pretty solid wrestler whom could be fitted in with really anyone and still get a fairly decent bout out of them. He's got a great presence despite being slightly undersized for a heavyweight and some of his moves have a great impact behind them. Really, the main problem was consistency: sometimes he was a great main event talent, sometimes he was a very slow and plodding type who was EXTREMELY minimalistic and dragged everything down. The problem is that he wasn't as high quality or consistent as the Pillars, but he also didn't have the megastar selling factor like a Chono or Hashimoto. He was good, even great when he's with someone who can squeeze the best traits out of him: this wasn't always the case."

[6.0] "Another guy cast in the same mold as Masahiro Chono: when he felt like it he was very good, albeit not as amazing as Keiji Muto. But in the other occasions... he was boredom personified, in some ways a throwback to the style favored by Japanese promoters in the late 70's. I understand not wanting to risk killing oneself every single night, but Sasaki didn't ever bother developing a B-show routine for those occasions and seemed to suffer from the same ailment as his mentor, Riki Choshu: he had little love for smaller and lesser venues. I always try to be fair when rating wrestlers, but this lacks of professionalism hirks me to no small end so even Sasaki gets 6."

[7.0] "From what I've seen his was good but wasn't as good as his rating says he is. Maybe im missing something because every now and then he just seemed a little sloppy"

[10.0] "Probably one of the most underrated wrestlers in Japanese wrestling history (him or Hase). Great look and presence, loads of charisma, a bad-ass and a fucking awesome wrestler. Great tag wrestler in his early career who turned into a great singles wrestler with some great matches and some good booking. His all time classic with Kobashi is one of the my favourite matches ever and he was the trainer of two tremendous wrestlers of the modern era, Katsu Nakajima and Kento Miyahara. All round GOAT"

[6.0] "Kensuke Sasaki was a guy who was never as good as the push he received, and he benefited hugely in New Japan from being the protégé and pet project of Riki Choshu. Sasaki was good enough to keep up with the top guys, but not good enough that it wasn't obvious that he was being led along."

[8.0] "For a really long time I simply did not get what was so special about Kensuke Sasaki, but that's just the case with some wrestlers. I think when New Japan really got serious about pushing him, he wasn't ready yet, but he got really good a few years later"

[8.0] "It took him almost 20 years to get good. But when he became good, he became really good."