Shinya Hashimoto

[10.0] "I mean what more can you say about this guy, great striker, great pro-wrestler, good at submissions, has a GREAT look, everything about him just screams "pro wrestler" to me. Watching his work during the UWFI-NJPW Angle has been a joy because he is easily one of my favorites ever. Everything about him just screams star"

[10.0] "The neutral monster of the musketeers while Mutoh was the charismatic hero and Chono was the dark villain. Hashimoto was a man with no boundaries, and you can tell that everytime he overhead chopped or straight kicked up guys in their stomach, it felt personal almost (seriously, he once dug his foot deep into Tenryu' stomach with a kick, he let a painful scream out). He was also a living proof of overweight wrestlers being capable of anything if they train hard, judging by the deadly kicks and agile DDTs he hit. To me, he was the greatest IWGP Heavyweight champion after Fujinami, and the special thing with Hashimoto is that he would let out all his emotions out in his matches, like a vulcano erupting to destroy everything around him. May our King Of Destruction rest in peace, and long live his strong style."

[10.0] "He is the ethos of New Japan. He is fighting spirit. That comes across in almost every match that I've seen of his, all while being the biggest draw of his respective generation. He was that good. While Misawa could get stuck in a very standardized form of wrestling, Hashimoto felt much more dynamic in the way he set up his matches. It helps that he was really easy to root for as a babyface. It's truly a shame that he passed away so young. He had a lot more left to give in an industry that was rapidly changing away from pro-wrestling. His death marked the loss of one of pro-wrestling's strongest."

[10.0] "While Kazuchika Okada may have beat him for best IWGP Heavyweight title reign, Hashimoto still embodies the idea of champion to me. The spirit of New Japan lived through Hashimoto during his peak. Muto, Chono and others may have had their fair share of big shows but none feel as big as when Hashimoto was defending or wrestling for the belt. Hashimoto was a rather underrated worker in his day because he wasn't fancy. He wasn't getting the credit he deserved by the tape traders, who were taken away by the Jr craze at the time, and that has left him out of the wider conversation for being one of the greatest when he certainly belongs. Whether it's a 30 minute match or a 12 minute match, Hashimoto always delivered something special. Something big and weighted. A master at getting something out of little. His kicks meant much more than anything. His chops could feel like game changers. His yells and screams added that little more drama to the mix without going over the top. Hashimoto felt larger than life and backed it up with his wrestling talent. A rare breed. One of the best ever. Truly deserved to be mentioned among Misawa, Kobashi, Kawada, Tenryu, Bryan Danielson, Bret Hart, ect, etc. And that's without mentioning his immense drawing abiltiies. Biggest draw of the 90s. No word of a lie."

[10.0] "A hero that NJPW needed during the 90s, brought back the IWGP Heavyweight title from the UWF with a monstorous pop to boot, fought back agianst nWo Japan and went on to have the longest world title reign in New Japan with record setting defenses (for the time at least), his chops and strkes were vicious and was decpetively fast despite his weight. Through a series of backstage circumstances he even went on to create his own company, but sadly died far to young. He doesn't get enough respect (probably because he hardly went to the states copared to Mutoh and Chono), but I would place Hashimoto above the both of them."

[7.0] "One of the most popular of all time that suffered an untimely death. He was solid in the ring, and looked the part."

[10.0] "A monster of a wrestler. I could watch him kill people all day. I couldn't wait to find one of his matches on VHSs in the 90s, and I spent a lot of time watching his matches on video sites in the 10's. His anger, his spirit, his death stare, and the headband. One of the greatest to ever do it."

[7.0] "A tremendous worker who I never really liked. I found his moveset goofy, his look hilarious in all the WRONG ways, and as NJPW and Inoki dragged NJPW towards an awkward pairing with MMA, he looked even goofier. I know he's a legend, but he's not just for me."

[10.0] "The greatest seller of all time. Able to convey so much with his just eyes-- vulnerability, anger, malice, dignity, and of course, violence."

[8.0] "Out of the big wrestling stars of the 90's, Hashimoto was probably one of the biggest, just below Misawa in drawing power. The guy was a sensationally over guy back then and was the most popular wrestler in NJPW: despite the relatively simple look and non-existent promo skill the crowd took to him very easily and he was booked as a stiff striking machine capable of taking crazy amounts of shots and giving them back also with a aura that screamed murder. In terms of workrate, he's not fantastic, at least in my mind. He's had some great matches with guys like Tenryu and his later work in AJPW and ZERO-ONE showed that he could work beyond the stunted, forced "epic" style that NJPW had where they needed to pad matches out way beyond their natural length, a issue they have even today, but because a majority of his work is within that bubble it's hard to really judge him as a wrestler separated from that. He wiffs a lot of his striking style offence and I find that guys like Misawa or Kawada are far more convincing in terms of their striking. When he's actually wrestling and the length isn't too extended he's actually very good for what it's worth, but he's more remembered for his physical charisma and aura than anything else, with some surprisingly good technical wrestling behind the strong style persona. I would say that he was capable of having great matches, but only when he was with great talent alongside him."

[10.0] "Absolute Legend! One of the biggest legend of New Japan and a top draw (90's). Badass, stiff, great look... Great rivalries with Keiji Muto and Naoya Ogawa, Longest IWGP Heavyweight reign for 20 years (he's 3rd run). IWGP Heavyweight x3, IWGP Tag Team x2, AJPW Triple Crown x1, NWA World Heavyweight x1, G1 Climax 98 and Tag League 92, 96. Wrestling Observer Newsletter, NWA and NJPW Hall Of Famer. Shinya Hashimoto deserve 10!"

[6.0] "Hashimoto is one of those wrestling legends I have never been able to appreciate. He's kinda like his fellow Musketeer, Masahiro Chono: for all the mystique of the legendary matches only a handful lived up to the hype back in the days when we finally could see them. After hearing and reading how incredibly brutal Hasmimoto's match with X or Y had been you patiently waited for the tapes to show up and when they did you were usually rewarded with the usual lukewarm showing by Hashimoto. Yeah, he had three/four really cool power moves such as his Brainbuster, but we needed to get to those moves first, meaning tons of meaningless kick sequences and too many pauses to allow Hashimoto to think what to do next, which was usually more kicks. Those matches wouldn't have been half bad had they gone 10 minutes but they invariably went over twice or even thrice that long: stretching matches too much has always been NJPW problem regardless of who's in charge. In all honesty I cannot fully blame Hashimoto for this because he didn't decide match length but he did little or nothing to keep things interesting. No small wonder everybody was watching AJPW back in those days."

[6.0] "Shinya Hashimoto is a tough one to rate because sometimes he could be spectacular in the ring but in others you'd think someone from the crowd just came to wrestle his first match!"

[6.0] "Hashimoto is one of those wrestling legends who I've never been able to 'get'. The first match of his that I saw was the great match against Takada where he won the IWGP Heavyweight Title, and I thought Hashimoto did great playing the fiery underdog going up against, and eventually dethroning, the outside champion. Sadly, basically every other match of his I've seen has been majorly underwhelming. For supposedly being the 'God of Strong-Style', his offence looked incredibly poor. The man couldn't deliver a good kick to save his life. Sure, he could get stiff impact on them, but that never mattered to me because I couldn't get past how ridiculous they looked due to his lack of mobility. As for his chops and other hand-based strikes, they were all fine, but I never saw anything that made me think "whoa this guy has a killer offence" as so many others apparently think. He had a few good power moves, I'll give him that, but that was never enough to carry his matches to the level of being 'good' in my eyes. The moments where he would fire up also always came off as rather forced, thought that's probably just because I personally never bought into him as an in-ring worker, thus I couldn't buy into his character either. I also have to say that the 'warrior samurai' look he went for didn't work. At all. His body type simply didn't fit that type of theme. He looked like a bad cosplayer more than anything. The only other truly great match I've seen Hashimoto have was against Hase, and that was an outstanding match only because of how Hase's sympathetic selling made Hashimoto's offence look far more impressive than it otherwise was. I can't call Hashimoto a bad wrestler, and I can't even really call him a boring wrestler, if only because he had so much crowd support that could carry his disappointing matches to being mediocre at worst. I just don't see what everyone else saw in him."

[8.0] "Pretty good for a guy his size. It sucks because, even as long as he was around, I still feel like he didn't amount to his full potential. May he R. I. P."

[10.0] "Great in the ring! He was a stocky wrestler that could humiliate his opponents. New Japan was his turf for many years. The matches he had with Vader were amazing."

[10.0] "Shinya Hashimoto had the kind of tough, physical style that allowed for some very dramatic matches, and his penchant for getting nosebleeds added to his effect. Hashimoto was one of New Japan's better draws, but despite this, his time in New Japan ended unceremoniously thanks to the machinations of others."

[10.0] "One of the best wrestlers of all time to be quite honest. No one could bring the same element of danger that Hashimoto brought to a match. Along with that he's one of the hardest hitters in wrestling history, an amazing seller, and he also had fantastic matwork to boot. He was also one of the few guys to show that you do not have to be extremely muscular in order to be a top star, and a top draw. RIP Hashimoto."

[10.0] "The heart and soul of New Japan in the 90's. Everytime Hashimoto came out to the ring, you know you were in for a treat. Loved by the crowd, Hashimoto brought an intensity and presence of his own to the ring. Some of the best facial expressions and selling he had as well. All in all, he was incredible, and a top 5 performer ever to me."

[10.0] "One of the biggest icons in Puroresu history, it's a shame that Western fans don't really know about him and he isn't mentioned in the same sentence with Misawa or Kobashi. An enormous draw despite not being a muscular dude, and really an incredible pro wrestler. Hashimoto is one of the greatest of all time."

[10.0] "Shinya Hashimoto is, without a doubt, in my opinion one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time. He was incredible in the ring & incredibly charismatic."

[10.0] "He may have looked like the Japanese love-child of John Belushi and Samoa Joe, but he was a great wrestler with a lot of skills and agility for someone his size, and a very believable champion."