8 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (Feb 17)
5. That Which Is Hiromu Takahashi
At The New Beginning In Osaka, on February 11, Hiromu Takahashi successfully retained his IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a massively dangerous match with Dragon Lee.
Some of the spots in it were insane. At one point, with Lee standing on the ring apron, Takahashi somersaulted over him and drilled him with a sunset flip powerbomb onto the entrance ramp. Minutes later, he casually chucked Lee from the top turnbuckle to the outside with a dangerously-angled overhead belly to belly suplex. The lackadaisical grip meant that Lee was very nearly dropped on his head. When Takahashi performed a seated senton - again, from the top rope to the outside - he landed on Lee's face, not his chest, the momentum trapping his head between bars in the guardrail.
The danger added to the drama of the match - but at what cost?
Mick Foley was roundly criticised in the 1990s for using real violence to get himself over - but the most dubious entries in his body of work saw him incur the most punishment. He flung himself from atop and through the Hell In A Cell roof. He set himself on fire. Even the gruesome-looking thumb tack bumps Edge and Randy Orton took were comparatively far safer.
Though no passenger, Takahashi's careless sadist character demands that his opponents take the brunt of the punishment. Every wrestler goes into a match knowing the risks of their profession - but those risks have arguably never been greater.