Jun Akiyama

[10.0] "Whenever the discussion of wrestlers who have had the best rookie year, many argue the likes of Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar, but the real ones will also throw in Jun Akiyama among those men and argue they're just as good as the rest, or even better. While I don't know who to choose personally who had the best rookie year, so I won't answer that question, but I can totally see why someone would choose Jun Akiyama. Seriously, the fact that this man was able to skyrocket to the top in less than 5 years of his career and showcase that he could hang with All Japan's Four Pillars of Heaven is hard to comprehend, he could even be argued for the greatest underdog in professional wrestling once AJPW stopped making him the fall guy in tag matches. Then he would go on to be a more experienced wrestler by the time he wrestled in NOAH, having amazing matches with everyone from the former AJPW guys like Kobashi to NOAH guys like KENTA, he truly came into his own in NOAH if you ask me. Then he goes on to wrestle for DDT where he's the veteran that all the young guys have to truly push themselves to beat him and showcase how good they are since Jun is the measuring stick for the company. Whatever role he has in a company, he's played them all super well, it amazes me how this man is still going and has the ability to wrestle at the age of 54. Overall, Jun Akiyama is one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time who's showcased he can be a great tag team specialist and solo competitor, a true legend in this profession we all love."

[10.0] "Dethroned Misawa as the first GHC champion, an icon of wrestling. He's in the right place with DDT in this stage of his career he works against your Ueno's and Takeshita's when needed and is good at leaning into the comedy side, with his feud against Hyper Misao being a good example."

[9.0] "One of my personal favorites. Before I converted to the Church of Taue, he was my preferred AJPW original."

[10.0] "Akiyama is the 5th pillar and honestly I'd put him over Akira Taue. His matches with the rest of the pillars were amazing and he always put on great matches in AJPW and NOAH. Although he's in his 50s he can still have amazing showings against people like Eddie Kingston, Bryan Danielson, and many others. His 30+ years of wrestling have been amazing and he's nothing but expiring for pro-wrestlers today and the future."

[10.0] "Akiyama is somebody who I feel like doesn't get as much love as the Four Pillars of Heaven. To me, Akiyama is the unofficial 5th pillar. His very long tenured career packed full of incredible matches puts him up there as one of the best. Even today, after 30+ years of wrestling an incredibly physical style with devastating matches, he can still go out there and have great showings against people like Eddie Kingston and Bryan Danielson and Atsushi Kotoge and all of the tag matches he primarily wrestles in I guess to protect him from his shortcomings. But even then, Akiyama can hit just as hard and take just as much punishment as the younger stars and it just adds to his mythos"

[9.0] "Only familiar with him in his original All Japan run and early NOAH, and to say the least he was absolutely incredible at that time. Akiyama was explosive, exciting and hard hitting, his matches with the four pillars were usually incredible. He was a top guy."

[9.0] "better than all of the AJPW pillars except for kobashi, especially considering his longevity and consistency. love you uncle jun!"

[10.0] "Maybe the greatest to ever do it! Whether he was working as the fiery underdog during his days in All Japan, the mature and experienced fighter in NOAH and around Japanese wrestling in the 2000s, or now as the veteran gatekeeper of DDT, he's always found a way to consistently put on incredible matches and tell stories in the ring. He's underrated because even those who know him and sing his praises may not fully appreciate how good he was during his career. His match with Shibata is one of the best I've ever seen, and he's had classics with just about anybody he faced."

[9.0] "A fantastic wrestler. He had some vicious offence and his late 90's AJPW and subsequent NOAH work was amazing. Even in his 50's he's still smoother than most."

[7.0] "Didn't think I'd enjoy his veteran gatekeeper role in DDT but it's actually been very good. His title win vs Endo remains one of my favourite DDT matches this year, but his defenses against Higuchi and HARASHIMA didn't do enough for me. His matches with Takeshita (KO-D Openweight and KO-D Tag) were both very good, and his tournament appearances were solid (Ultimate Tag League especially). Looking forward to his guiding role with Endo."

[10.0] "One of the best yet still underrated wrestlers of all time. The fact he is still so good in 2021 despite the unbelievable miles on the clock is mind."

[10.0] "One of the geatest wrestlers of all time, and one of the greatest veterans of all time, his stuff in AJPW, NOAH and DDT are legendary"

[10.0] "I did it watch much of his early work obviously I heard about but never saw it and then he comes to DDT at 50 years of age and I tried to keep my expectations low and I thought he would not be the guy he used to be but I was shocked at how good he still is a little slower maybe but still just as effective I. The ring the matches he has had speak for themselves with the match against Takeshita being the best of them so far"

[10.0] "I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain why Jun Akiyama is one of the best Japanese wrestlers of all time."

[10.0] "This guy is just a living legend. He was and he is one of the bests in the world. At 51 years old, he stills do enormous performance, like against Takeshita at Ultimate Party 2020 or against Endo at Kawasaki Strong 2021. Awesome wrestler, from the beginning of his career to the end, Jun Akiyama is fantastic."

[9.0] "A brilliant technical wrestler that was only really hindered booking wise by the fact that he was around when some of the greatest to ever enter a ring in general were also at their top. Akiyama came in as basically a super rookie and very quickly got recognized as a phenomenal natural talent, a guy whom could innovate pretty well with young guys like him or with the major league stars. I did always find him awkward for the first few years in terms of his striking and pacing but he eventually found a niche in a lot of varied knee strikes and attacks. A great heel in his later years but is underrated as a underdog face during those rookie years: his selling was really on top form for those. Ultimately what hurt Akiyama the most was that he just was always booked as the B guy when it mattered, nearly always coming up short in the top title bouts with Misawa and co, and the crowd just couldn't connect with a guy who always choked like him. Having Akiyama lose to guys like Ogawa within five minutes was just bad booking. Regardless, the guy's still a legendary quality workhouse, a killer heel that could just wreck a guy in the ring without a single sign of restraint. I don't get the argument that he didn't have charisma considering he got some amazing crowd reactions from both sides of the coin either: guy could have been a main event star if the whole AJPW/NOAH spilt nonsense and Motoko Baba always lowballing him never happened. Undoubtfully a legend of the ring regardless."

[9.0] "The best heel to have come out of Japan, period, and one of the top ten heels of all the history of pro-wrestling. In a way he is a throwback to the glory days of lucha libre when heels were supposed not merely to be the bad guys, but great workers as well: Akiyama in full "killer mode" was a true marvel to behold because he was not just so good in the ring, and outside of it, but looked downright scary. You know, with people like Minoru Suzuki you just know they are playing the part of the psychopath well. Akiyama trascended that and just looked like something had really snapped inside him and he just wanted to hurt his rival, badly, giving him superhuman skills and reflexes. Amazing and incredible: basically a Fujiwara on steroids. The only problem I have with him is his tenure as AJPW promoter that largely coincided with what are arguably the promotion's darkest days and he carries his fair share of the blame."

[10.0] "Jun Akiyama is one of the greatest, no wonder why he is one of my favorites of all time. His matches against Kobashi and Marufuji are on another level that normal human beings can't comprehend."

[8.0] "Akiyama was a really good worker, sometimes great, and it's a shame that he didn't have the charisma to connect with the fans in a manner that would have allowed him to carry a promotion."

[10.0] "Still the fucking man. Jun had arguably the greatest rookie year in wrestling history and even in 2018 he's still one of the best in the world. Jun is a grumpy old man nowadays and it translates over into his matches where he beats the life out of everyone. Greatest examples of this are his matches against Miyahara and Marufuji where he hates the fact they're alive."

[9.0] "Considerred by some as the unoffical "fifth" pillar during the awesomeness that was AJPW in the 90s, Akiyama is undoubtably a great wrestler. I just don't think that he was on the same level as the four pillars though (yes, even Taue)."

[9.0] "#4 as far as the greatest of the 90s AJPW alumni is concerned behind Kobashi, Misawa & Kawada. Jun was perhaps the most intense of the pack and easily the most versatile, but I feel with his versatility he sacrifices some of the crowd connect-ability that the other three have in some way or shape. As they say, less is more, but he isn't hampered too badly by it. His work in NOAH is arguably just as good as his work in All Japan."

[10.0] "When he was younger, he was amazing, as a older vet he put on classics, and as an old grizzled man he has crazy harf hitting matches and has put over the new generation of AJPW while also keeping himself a relevant power player."

[10.0] "One of the very best, so many great matches and one of the best faces in peril ever. Despite he was not a member of the four pillars he was integral to the second half of the 90s and the early years of noah."

[10.0] "Not giving Jun Akiyama the full ten points is criminal imo. The guy is basically the greatest ring technician to come out of Japan, and has a number of classics on his name. Even in 2015 he's still going at the age of 46. Jun is amazing."

[10.0] "The master of the Exploder Suplex, and one of those wrestlers that don't need a lot of moves for doing great matches."

"new faction coming up soon with Jun Akiyama, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Atsushi Aoki, Kotaro Suzuki & Go Shiozaki they're going to be called "Burning""

[10.0] "An incredibly good wrestler, but also quite an unlucky one in a way. He was the youngest of the AJPW famous five in the 1990s, and unlike the other 4, he never wrestled Jumbo Tsuruta when Jumbo was in his prime. He also didn't hold the Triple Crown until 2011, 11 years after he stopped working there full time to join NOAH. In NOAH, he was (and is) a main-eventer - But despite being GHC champion and Triple Crown Champion, 2 of his reigns ended in less than 5 minutes, after being booked to look dominant for a number of months before that. He is a fantastic tag team wrestler, with a number of 5-star matches to his name, and he is also an innovator, with the Exploder (T-Bone) Suplex, Wrist-Clutch Exploder Suplex and the Blue Thunder Driver being moves that he effectively created for Pro Wrestling. With age, comes experience, and Akiyama has more experience, memorable matches and accomplishments than a lot of other 20 year careers."