On September 5^th, 2021, AEW’s Jon Moxley will face off towards one other NJPW legend within the type of Satoshi Kojima. However regardless of the age distinction between them – with Kojima being fifty years outdated – this received’t be a simple match for Moxley.

Kojima is without doubt one of the most achieved wrestlers nonetheless lively in Japan. And although he’s properly previous his prime, there’s a great likelihood he’ll convey out one thing particular for his first AEW look.

However Kojima isn’t simply one other hard-hitter. He’s additionally one of the crucial embellished wrestlers in Japan. He was the primary man to carry NJPW’s IWGP Heavyweight Championship and AJPW’s Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship concurrently.

He has additionally received quite a few tag titles, tournaments, and different accolades all through Japan and the USA, together with the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

However how did he accomplish a lot? Properly, it was thanks to 2 issues: nice timing and an excellent finisher.

Kojima’s rise to the highest got here on the excellent time in Japan. He spent the primary eleven years of his profession in New Japan, most of which was in tag group matches. However regardless of reaching success with tag accomplice Hiroyoshi Tenzan, he by no means actually stood out on his personal. That’s, till 2002.

Satoshi Kojima

Following a extremely profitable cross-promotional feud between NJPW and AJPW, Kojima adopted his mentor Keiji Mutoh to All Japan. AJPW’s roster had been gutted following Misawa’s NOAH break up, and thus their roster relied on New Japan and different exterior skills to remain afloat.

Mutoh was the centerpiece to a year-long feud between each corporations, however after it ended, he determined to leap ship. He, like many others in New Japan, had grown bored with Inoki’s loopy and unpredictable reserving selections.

Inoki’s obsession with MMA and nonsensical inventive concepts have been taking a toll on NJPW’s recognition, funds, and roster. And when Mutoh left, so did Kojima. And it was in AJPW that Kojima was capable of thrive.

Whereas Mutoh galvanized the AJPW product together with his repute and massive identify, Kojima (willingly) carried the load by way of in-ring expertise. Satoshi Kojima wrestled one nice match after one other towards whosoever received thrown at him.

Whether or not they have been older legends like Genichiro Tenryu or mainstays like Toshiaki Kawada, Kojima was the person in All Japan. He out-wrestled everybody round him and had the viewers within the palm of his hand because of, amongst different issues, his depraved finisher.

The Lariat

Sure, it’s one other wrestler that makes use of a lariat as a finisher. However whereas some individuals would possibly dismiss that as boring, Kojima made it work higher than most. First, in his prime, his arms have been completely huge.

Tales have been instructed about how Kojima was as soon as stopped at an airport as a result of officers believed he was carrying medication in his arms. Not in his garments or beneath his armpit however in his precise arms.

That’s how large they have been. Second, Kojima, like most Japanese wrestlers, threw his lariat as laborious as he might as a result of that’s how they wrestled in Japan. There was an expectation of stiffness, and Kojima embraced that philosophy with gusto.

So he swung his huge arm with murderous intent and wrecked opponents left and proper. Not even Mutoh himself was secure from Kojima’s appropriately named Gowan (Robust-Arm) lariat.

Because the years handed, an increasing number of wrestlers fell to Kojima’s lariat, which propelled him to the world title. He turned among the finest in-ring wrestlers in Japan throughout the 2000s, which led to him touring overseas.

It wasn’t lengthy earlier than Kojima began cleaving heads in North America as properly.

Though his prime was way back, Kojima stays one of the crucial revered wrestlers in New Japan. After returning to that firm in 2010, he has embraced his position as an growing old ‘New Japan Dad’-type veteran.

However at the same time as time catches as much as him, Satoshi Kojima stays in nice form for a 50-year-old wrestler. Although he isn’t more likely to run at full pace and received’t be diving off the highest rope, he can nonetheless hit extremely laborious. As well as, his lariat remains to be one of the crucial harmful weapons in wrestling.

Because of this, Jon Moxley shouldn’t stroll into All-Out 2021 anticipating a simple evening. Nagata walked in and tried to make him faucet out. Kojima will stroll in and can attempt to take his head off. And if Moxley underestimated the ‘Robust Arm,’ he’ll discover himself being hit by a baseball bat, not a human arm.

Regardless of shedding, Satoshi Kojima endeared himself to followers out and in of AEW. He proved as soon as once more that point might stand nonetheless and that his worth within the ring was as timeless as his sturdy arm lariat.