10 Hardest-Hitting Wrestlers Today

Tomohiro Ishii is built like a Pitbull, and this is one dog whose bite is significantly worse than his bark.

Long regarded as one of wresting’s most underrated performers, recent years have finally seen Ishii being pushed to the fore. He’s now won multiple Never Openweight Championships and even defeated Roderick Strong to have a run with the ROH Television Title. While the big one still eludes him, it’s clear that New Japan has finally realised what they have.

And what they have is a wrestler who is perfectly happy to go out there and fight for what he wants. Just watch his recent semi-final defeat to Shibata in the New Japan Cup. Those two men slapped, punched and kicked the daylights out of each other, and through it all, Ishii keeps coming back for more.

Ishii has spent most of the year playing the straight man to Toru Yano in an oddball tag-team, but the New Japan Cup saw him steal the show and arguably play a part in the three best matches of the tournament. Hopefully, this is a sign that New Japan have some plans for Ishii in the months to come and you can bet that whatever they are, he’ll headbutt his way through them.