FanPost

A Beginner’s Guide to... Hiromu Takahashi

Welcome one and all back to the "Beginner’s Guide" series.

Before we get into the latest guide, a slight update on things. A couple changes have been made to the schedule. On September 27 I will now be covering Aja Kong, and on October 29 it will be time to fly with Io Shirai (hey, that rhymed! Anyway, onto this week).

Last time, we covered Tetusya Naito, leader of Los Ingobernables de Japon. This time, we continue with LIJ members with the ticking time bomb, Hiromu Takahashi.

Hiromu is best described as unpredictable character wise, he’s a walking charisma ball in LIJ, a group with a lot of charismatic dudes. He’s also one of the best damned wrestlers on the planet and everyone is anxiously waiting his return from a neck injury, which I will cover how/why that happened.

Without further set-up, onward to the guide.

1. Hiromu Takahashi vs Taiji Ishimori - Best of the Super Juniors 25 Finals

This match was one of last year’s best. Hiromu vs Taiji to decide who would face Will Ospreay at Dominion was an absolute master class in Junior wrestling. Both men pulled off insane feats of speed and even strength to go over 34 minutes with the crowd in suspense the whole time. Eventually Hiromu came out on top, setting up another great match for just four days later.

2. Hiromu Takahashi vs Will Ospreay - Dominion 6.9 (2018)

Ospreay/Takahashi was always magic in the ring. The two always had fantastic chemistry and worked so well together. While this match got overshadowed by the main event of Omega/Okada 4, it’s still damn great in its own right and is recommended viewing for both men’s catalogs, and is a testament to Will Ospreay’s wrestling ability, proving he’s more than just flips.

3. Hiromu Takahashi vs KUSHIDA - Wrestle Kingdom 11

KUSHIDA was always Hiromu’s rival. The two shared a mutual feud that lasted a long time, but sadly never got pay off due to KUSHIDA heading to NXT while Hiromu was hurt. This match was another banger in their rivalry, that like most of 11, for overshadowed by the main event.

4. Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito vs. Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay - World Tag League 2017 Final

An unusual one for me to include, but a good one nonetheless. This match was the last day of the tag league and was a preview of Wrestle kKingdom with the two men in the heavyweight match against two in the junior match. The chemistry both teams, especially LIJ have is off the charts. A great preview tag match for what were two awesome WK12 bouts.

5. Hiromu Takahashi vs Will Ospreay vs KUSHIDA vs Marty Scurll - Wrestle Kingdom 12

Talk about a bonkers four way. Because it’s a four way, I don’t have much to say on it. The four here all get to do their spots, including Hiromu hitting three apron sunset bombs in a row. This is an incredible car crash match that everyone should watch.

6. Hiromu Takahashi vs Marty Scurll - Best of the Super Juniors 25, Day 2

Another match from the 25th BOSJ, this time its the Villain vs the Time Bomb. Scurll was always an interesting opponent for anyone in the Juniors because he doesn’t really wrestle like a junior usually does. He wrestles a more submission oriented style rather than the crazy high flying stuff usual Juniors work. As such, this match is great.

7. Hiromu Takahashi vs Dragon Lee - G1 Special in San Francisco

I really didn’t want to do this match here, but I basically had to because a) it’s a good ass match, and b) it’s the reason why Hiromu is inactive. So this match was Hiromu defending his Junior Heavyweight gold against CMLL’s Dragon Lee. During it, Lee went for a package German suplex, basically a German from a package piledriver position. This was a bad idea from the outset, and ended just as poorly with Hiromu breaking his neck, but because he’s nuts, Takahashi finished the match with it and retained his title, before vacating it due to the injury. If you are not a fan of neck bumps, I’d highly recommend you skip this due to the bump that’s injured him. If not, watch it to see his toughness and Dragon’s unbelievable skill at only 24.

That is all for this edition, and the summer in terms of individual teams and wrestlers. Join up here next week for a special guide to TNA’s weirdest and strangest moments and for a preview, I’ll tease two of them here and now. Both are from Lockdown 2007, and if you’ve seen it or watched OSW’s episode on it, you know them well.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.