Dick Togo

[4.0] "Dick Togo has been wrestling for so long and was good at the start and even good up until around 2017. Since then, he has been possibly the worst wrestler in New Japan and it is so disappointing to see"

[8.0] "Dick Togo is a weird one, and honestly, I'm very surprised to see the amount of praise that he's been given on this suite. Personally, I was born within this century, meaning that I didn't grow up watching his Michinoku Pro tapes, so I don't have anything besides his small mainstream WWF run and the shotgun-carousel that can be the House Of Torture to really base my opinion off firsthand. Nonetheless, I still like Dick Togo, as the older clips that I've seen of him shows that he used to be an absolutely incredible talent, and he's still surprisingly mobile for a 55 year old in his japanese indie appearances (which I actually highly suggest you watch). This is then of course contrasted to his work now though, as like I previously mentioned, his House Of Torture work can be painful at times, and he often finds himself making their work worse rather than somewhat more bearable. I just can't bring myself to hate Dick Togo though, as his snake-oil salesman type of personality is something that somehow endears itself to me for some reason."

[10.0] "Dick Togo is one of the greatest wrestlers ever. He has been a consistently fantastic professional wrestler for 30+ years now. Has had wonderful matches in the 90's as part of the legendary tags in Michinoku Pro, Battlarts and ECW. Amazing matches in the 2000's in DDT against Honda & Mikami or in Michinoku Pro against Atlantis. Had one of the 10 best matches ever (imo) against Antonio Honda in 2011 and his entire 2011 run is fantastic as a whole with matches against Honda, HARASHIMA, Shuji and Ibushi among others. Absolutely legendary wrestler"

[10.0] "One of the best of all time. Togo is one of the few people in wrestling who seem to "get" it, working like wrestling itself is in his nature. He's a genius able to blend aspects from Memphis, Mexico, and Japan together into one perfect wrestling style. His matches with guys like Antonio Honda, MIKAMI, Atlantis, and more are all some of the greatest matches ever. This isn't even mentioning his tag work in Michinoku Pro where he's one of the best heel bases of all time. Also when he ran a wrestling school in the early 2000s he made his students take a "philosophy of wrestling" class. There's nobody better."

[10.0] "Togo is a legitimate contender for the most underrated worker and industry figure of all time. Where his contemporaries often get their flowers for just how innovative they were, Togo is oft forgotten as an absolute genius of wrestling. He is responsible for the training of two incredible workers in AMAKUSA and Daisuke Sasaki and has a hand in the development of literally countless more throughout his time in DDT, NJPW, MPW, Z1, OPW and many many more promotions. He had some really amazing matches both before and after his initial 2012 retirement. Go watch more Dick Togo, you will learn so much about wrestling even if you have been watching for years. Also, he is a big Che Guevara mark which is always a good sign."

[10.0] "The hate he gets due to the recruitments of SHO and EVIL (a Gedo failure, not his) for BC are senseless and stupid. Dick Togo is a tremendous performer even after turning 52. He's been over 30 years in the business and never lost a beat (even back then when he was a chubby guy in the Kaientai DX days), quick as a cat, strong as a bull. He can go furthermore If he wants, and all the complains here because of his booking should be directed at Jado and Gedo, Togo is great overall. Fans happen to be incredibly stupid and blind at times, and this is what they are when it comes to Togo. Go watch his Michinoku Pro work, where he works as a BABYFACE, and then your 0s will turn into 8s and 9s."

[6.0] "Was a fine wrestler outside of the two things he is most famously known for. Still is a fine manager now that he's gone from the EVIL match ruiner to just another HoT member, the guy cleared a barricade at 55 years old ffs."

[8.0] "Let's all pretend choppy choppy your pee pee and HoT never existed, and soak in the rest of Togo's amazing career. 2010s Togo was so based he ended his first retirement run in Bolivia because it's where Che Guevara had his last guerilla campaign. Togo as KDX leader was an all time great heel role. That he would still be a top of his game wrestler 15 years later in DDT and looking even meaner is a nice cherry on top. Val Venis? Gedo? Never heard of them."

[5.0] "Only saw a handful of his matches in the WWF in 1998 when he was allowed to actually do stuff. I blame Vince Russo and the WWF just not getting Japanese smaller wrestlers and not knowing what to do with them."

[2.0] "As a wrestler with a very long under-rated career that stayed impressive even up to 5 to 10 years ago- I'd give him an 8. As a pin eating New Japan Dad, I wouldn't count this position against him, as it's a noble tradition to be in ring teaching the younger athletes on house shows. As a manager accompanying House of Torture to the ring- he gets a 2. He is just terrible at this job- slow, repetitive, obvious, and delivers no emotional response whether his cheating 101 tactics (tactic? He barely has more than 1 move) pay off to steal a win or whether his efforts (effort- again, singular) get thwarted by the faces- nobody (even now with vocal audiences allowed) gives a single shit about any of the guys he manages (note to self drop my ratings on Evil 7.0 to 6.0, Sho 8.0 to 6.0 andYujiro (HoT actually doesn't alter his miserable 2.0 rating- way to hang in there at a consistent awful level Yuj). And the final area listed to vote on (wrestler, manager, booker- maybe add a way to separate these to allow votes to reflect which (It would be interesting to see how Gedo, Triple H and a few others do in votes as a wrestler vs. for their booking careers), but since I'm averaging out these 3 votes that would mean I'm going -8.0 for Togo's booking- easily the worst of the 40 years of major and indie promotions that I've followed. Give Togo the entire Sakura Genesis event tomorrow and let's see if it can be as poisonous as Vince McMahon was to the Raw after Wrestlemania- I bet it'd be close, a comparison that would hopefully be the worst time anyone would spend by choice in 2023."

[4.0] "Apart the funny name there Is nothink. He Is un able into the ring and at the micro phone house of torture Is bad stable cause peapole like this, I m Sorry that evil has to work with this idiote like him. **1/4"

[6.0] "A very serviceable wrestler in his time and was involved in a lot of good matches for over 20 years. I won't put too much weight into his HoT tenure."

[6.0] "Nice wrestler in the past, but today he is a trash manager, promo, and booker. Only thing that he is worth is that his name is DICK, and that has been memed so much."

[6.0] "Sorry to say but he sucks now as manager and booker. Yea he was good wrestler in past but currently he's one of the worst asset in NJPW without any doubt. He's so so annoying currently with EVIL because of interferences."

[5.0] "I've been satisfied with Dick Togo's in ring skills with his impressive matches especially on New Japan Road, but Like with SHO and EVIL, NJPW really needs a do-over for Dick Togo. Interferences aren't effective when there's really no storytelling or meaning behind them."

[5.0] "I actually like Dick Togo as a pure wrestler, but his House of Torture shtick literally ruins matches he competes in or acts as a second for. It is nearly unwatchable, so my 2022 rating for Togo needs to reflect that."

[10.0] "He's a legend of Puro. Better than Inoki, Fujinami & Tanahashi all united. The favorite wrestler of Kobashi, Taue, Misawa & Kawada... A true legend. Brock Lesnar just stole his spot as the man who break the streak of Taker... It should have been him Brocky..."

[0.0] "He's killing the promotion. He's the cancer of the modern NJPW. Dick made EVIL matches unwatchable with his booking, now he ruined SHO. They were two nice wrestlers and now look, they are the worst part of the show. This is not heel work, when you feel depressed after watching professional wresling. Everything he touching turning into shit. He should be fired."

[0.0] "The worst thing to happen to NJPW since Antonio Inoki become obsessed with MMA in the 2000s. Absolute shitter in the ring and in the writing room."

[10.0] "I think about how badly that Togo has been used in NJPW every so often and just become furious that a bunch of eighteen year-old Brits are going to see Togo in the most pointless stretch of one of the greatest and most versatile careers ever and think that he sucked because he's been booked as an ersatz Jado in the most miserable run in that company's history. Fuck."

"Haven't seen much of his work to give him a fair rating but i got to say; his senton bomb is like a feast to the eyes."

[7.0] "Is Dick Togo good? Yes absolutely, and very consistent to boot. But does he stand out in any way? The answer is not. He gets one extra point for his extraordinary in-ring longevity: for his age he's still pretty good."

[8.0] "Won many titles in his career. Had success internationally and Japan. In WWF he was sadly not used properly."

[8.0] "If you have only seen and judged Dick Togo by his WWE run you are seriously missing out. A consistent and polished all rounder who can get a good match out of pretty much anyone. His retirement tour stuff is must see, and to this day he is still a great performer."

[10.0] "After a four-year hiatus from the ring, Togo made his triumphant return to wrestling. Remarkably, he can still go in the ring, as seen by his matches against the likes of Daisuke Sasaki and Zack Sabre Jr. in recent months. One of my favorite things about Togo (aside from his tremendous facial expressions), is that he works equally as good as a heel/face, and that's something I value a good bit. A tremendous pro wrestler who was criminally misused during his brief WWE run as a member of Kaientai. Togo's peak performances during his Japanese retirement tour in 2010-2011 are among my absolute favorites."

[8.0] "Very well polished in-ring performer who was underrated for much of his career."