There are so many great wrestlers in the tournament, and much to my surprise, there are a lot of great wrestlers in the tournament who aren't American. But there was one Japanese wrestler left out of this thing, who should, without a doubt, be in it. And his name is Hayabusa.
I first saw Hayabusa on probably the greatest pay-per-view ECW has ever held and in my opinion, one of the greatest wrestling pay-per-views of all time, in Heat Wave 1998. That night he teamed up with Jinsei Shinzaki (Hakushi in the WWF) and had an absolutely SUPERB match against Rob Van Dam and Sabu. After seeing that, I became a fan of his. I loved his look, and to this day he is the most graceful wrestler I've ever seen. It wasn't until a few years later where I had the means to actually see some more of his stuff, but when I did, he became a favorite of mine and remained one of my favorites to this day.
Every time he performed, he gave it his all. His fucking all, as much as anyone has ever given in the business. Hayabusa has had some of the most dangerous, unbelievably shocking bumps one has ever had in pro wrestling. But the thing about him was, unlike most "Harcore" guys and wrestlers who were known in FWA, the guy could actually go out and have a GREAT match without the "hardcore" aspect involved in the contest. The man really could work in his ass off in any type of match. He was also a great promo cutter, as well (obviously I can't speak Japanese and of course there were no subtitles, but you could just tell from his emotions alone on the microphone that he was damn good at interviews), and had a ton of charisma. He was one of the most over wrestlers Japan has ever had.
Moreover, he had a TREMENDOUS feud against Mr. Gannosuke in FMW. A feud, I might add, that ended in a match with none other than SHAWN MICHAELS as special guest referee. That alone shows how big this feud was in Japan, and to this day it's one of the greatest feuds the country has ever seen.
The fact is that Hayabusa is one of the greatest, most recognizable, and most acclaimed wrestlers to ever come out of Japan and he deserves to be in this tournament. He was an innovator, and carried a company on his back for nearly ten years. The company died when he got injured; that's how much he meant to it. He was also a tough motherfucker in the ring, where it took uncountable amounts of punishment to finish him off. In this tournament, where there are so many great high flyers and foreign wrestlers, it'll be a shame to leave out one of, if not THE, best wrestlers in BOTH of those categories.
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