#1 Katsuyori Shibata
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It wasn’t my intention to place these five wrestlers in any particular order, but putting Shibata at the top of the pile was entirely intentional. I’ve adored getting to know unique talents like Okada and Omega, but when I think about who immediately drew my attention the most, it was ‘The Wrestler’ Katsuyori Shibata.
Although chronologically the match between Okada and Omega happened first, I actually saw Sakura Genesis before Wrestlekingdom, so it was, in fact, the main event between Shibata and Okada that was most responsible for attracting my attention. It is probably unfair to compare the two, but if I had to pick between them, I would actually choose the Shibata match every time.
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Okada Vs. Omega was more of a spectacle, but Shibata Vs. Okada was the more believable, true to life ‘fight’ that I most associated with the Japanese style. If it were a choice between having to spend 5 minutes in the ring with Brock Lesnar or Shibata, I would go for Lesnar every time. The way Shibata burns a hole through his opponents just by looking at them makes you think the guy has never once shown fear in his life. He is the quintessential ‘hard-man’ that can take anyone on.
His match at Sakura Genesis also showed his versatility. The bout started off looking like a British wrestling match, with lots of grounded submission holds and technical athleticism. At times, Shibata made the IWGP Heavyweight Champion seem like a WWE jobber; wrestling rings around his opponent in ways that made you think of Bret Hart. Then as the pace quickened, the strong style came into play, and you soon began to almost pity Okada for being on the receiving end of it.
Sadly, for me, my favourite Japanese wrestler looks like he might have wrestled his final match. The headbutt spot that caused his own forehead to crack open seems to have been the final trigger for a man who was apparently nursing quite a few injuries as it was anyway. Hopefully we do see him again, but for now, I will be spending most of my free time watching his excellent back catalogue of matches on youtube.
Could he work in the WWE? He would obviously need to come back from injury first, which seems far from certain. But if he ever did come back, I think the WWE owe it to themselves to place him in at least one match. It would have to be against a guy who knows how to sell effectively, perhaps Sami Zayn. We are all aware of what happened when Zayn welcomed Shinsuke Nakamura to NXT, and who wouldn’t want to see a something similar between Zayn and Shibata?
Matches to check out: Shibata Vs. Okada – Sakura Genesis 2017 and Shibata Vs. Goto – Wrestlekingdom 11
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