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The G.O.A.T. 100 #66 | Tomohiro Ishii
Welcome to the G.O.A.T. 100 where we will count down with PWM wrestling historian Peter Edge the 100 greatest wrestlers of all time, based on many different stats and criteria. A new wrestler will be added on Mondays and Thursdays every week. Here is a link to an introduction essay with Peter explaining his GOAT100 concept. At the bottom of the article you can find the GOAT 100 Portal with links to all profiles so far published, as well as a visual key... Enjoy learning more about the history of our great hobby!
Late developers are one of the fun stories in sport. By usual football standards Harry Kane was one. After average loan spells around the EFL, Harry just started hitting his stride in the 15/16 season at the age of 22 and never looked back. In golf, Vijay Singh became a top tier golfer at 35… and in movies/TV Giancarlo Esposito became a noted face in Hollywood in his fifties. (Yes, I know he was in a ton of stuff before Breaking Bad, but it has taken rewatches of Usual Suspects, Ali and Malcolm X for us to all go “isn't that the Gus Fring bloke from Breaking Bad?” when Giancarlo turns up as the FBI Agent, Ali’s dad and the bloke who shot Malcom in those movies…)
(Actually, does anyone actually watch The Usual Suspects anymore after it all came out about you know who?)
But when it comes to late developers, none of those examples above hold a candle to being late in developing than Tomohiro Ishii…
Ishii actually had a career before he and Katsuyori Shibata started beating the heck out of each other that night in 2013. The longevity of Tomohiro Ishii is such that he made his debut for WAR (Wrestle Association R) in 1996 losing to Choden Senshi Battle Ranger, and over the next three years he was a regular in WAR’s junior heavyweight division.
He teamed with Lance Storm when Lance did a tour with WAR and would wrestle Masaaki Mochizuki for the junior title. When WAR shut down in 2000, Ishii went freelance,showing up at Toryumon, DDT, Michinoku Pro, Zero-1, HUSTLE and the disaster class that was World Japan (which we'll go into more in Riki Choshu’s bio later in this series.) One of the spots that Ishii visited was NJPW – he would make sporadic appearances in New Japan, but impressed them so much that he became a full-timer there in 2006 when he joined the main heel group at the time, Great Bash Heel. Ishii would be a lower tiered member of the group, with Toru Yano (yes, that Toru Yano) being higher on the depth chart in the group. (Serious heel rulebreaker Yano is a trip in retrospect.) and when the rest of GBH turned on Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma, forming Chaos under the leadership of Shinsuke Nakamura, Ishii was never a main guy in the group as identified in the G1 with 2011 seeing Shinsuke, Yujiro Takahashi and Tetsuya Naito getting G1 berths as members of Chaos over Ishii and 2012 seeing the former three get into G1 with Naito going out on his own from Chaos in between editions 21 and 22.
During these years, Ishii would feud with the fourth iteration of Tiger Mask, with Ishii’s hair being shaved after a Hair vs. Mask match. Yes kids, Tomohiro Ishii once had hair. Yeah, losing the match to Tiger Mask IV was the best thing that ever happened to Tommy, giving him the distinctive baldie look he's rocked every since…
The feud would continue with Ishii donning the Black Tiger mask (nice to see American wrestling tropes this early in Gedo’s booking) only to lose it in a Mask vs Mask match, Ishii’s second apuesta loss in just 28 days.
Ishii’s first “notebook” match in singles according to Cagematch would come on November 12th of 2011 against Yuji Nagata, with his first challenge for a singles title after 6 years on the NJPW roster, an Intercontinental Title match against Hirooki Goto.
Ishii's in-ring performances were starting to be noticed by the fans, especially in Korakuen Hall where he wrestled Masato Tanaka – a fellow Chaos member who had beaten him in the semis of the tournament to crown the inaugural NEVER Openweight champion, in a rematch for Masato’s title. The fans got behind Tomohiro in a big way, and not long after Ishii became “Mr. Korakuen” and the push began.
Ishii beat Satoshi Kojima in the first round of the 2013 New Japan Cup in an “upset” and he was a focus in the Chaos vs Suzuki-Gun feud which helped Chaos on the road to becoming babyfaces and Ishii got his first invite to a G1 – which is where that Shibata match happened.
Toxic masculinity is a word that deservedly has a stigma around it. Toxic masculinity is something that makes me feel icky. Normally, I’d say the less toxic masculinity there is in the world, the better the world actually is. But for these 13 minutes, toxic masculinity was actually ok, actually fun. From the moment Tomohiri Ishii and Katsuyori Shibata ram into each other like bulls, the pair have what I can only describe as the visual equivalent of doing a line of cocaine. It’s quick, the rush is instantaneous, and so is the urge to do it again. It would kick start an addiction to four star+ matches from Ishii that would define his career.
I have Ishii at 185 notebook singles matches in my notebook of notebook matches (yes, that is a thing I have) but this isn't just me and my love of Big Tommy speaking. Dave Meltzer has him at 149 1 vs. 1 matches at ****+ and Cagematch has him at 173 at 7.50 or over. An Ishii match might be as formulaic as a Zack Snyder movie but it always hits and if it doesn't then something didn't gel or the other guy in the ring is – to be blunt – shite.
From that night against Shibata, Ishii would hit repeat on his banger recipe with his annual participation in the G1 being a time where he could showcase his best efforts. Ishii would become “Mr. August” in no time – despite his 43-52 overall record, with just four of his ten G1’s ending with a .500+ record, Tomohiro would notch up 65 “notebook” matches in his 11 appearances.
Once the 2013 G1 was over, Ishii went to CMLL for a brief excursion and when back he feuded with Tetsuya Naito over Naito’s Openweight Title. Ishii’s win over Naito at New Beginning was his first title win in New Japan, one of six Openweight reigns – the most in the history of the title.
His first reign with the NEVER Openweight Title saw a defence against Kota Ibushi which is my MOTY for 2014 but it was during the Chaos vs Bullet Club feud that Ishii lost the title to the man who had defected from Chaos to Bullet Club, Yujiro Takahashi. But Ishii would regain the belt later in the year.
The 2014 G1 saw a match against his Chaos leader, Shinsuke Nakamura, that was a MOTYC, as well as bangers against Shibata, Yuji Nagata and Davey Boy Smith Jr. The 2015 edition saw Ishii with six notebook matches, including a miracle – producing a banger with Karl Anderson. But his 2015 was highlighted by a series of matches against Tomoaki Honda, who in this time was my favourite vibes wrestler. The man who innovated light tubes in wrestling would bring the death match genre to New Japan with tremendous success, and the hoss matches he and Ishii produced were spectacular contests.
With the rising popularity of New Japan – especially outside of Japan, thanks to the advent of New Japan World – Ishii would become a big player in the working relationships that NJPW developed with various overseas partners.
He would win the ROH Television Title from future Conglomeration castmate Roderick Strong at Honour Rising: Japan in early 2016 and on WrestleMania weekend in New Orleans, he would win the British Undisputed Title from Zack Sabre Jr. being one of the seven New Japan contracted wrestlers to monopolize Rev Pro’s top title in a seven-year period until Ricky Knight Jr. won the belt in 2022 off Will Ospreay.
Ishii would be a beloved guest star on Rev Pro shows when he appeared, and he certainly helped get over potential stars there. His match at the 12th Anniversary show against Luke Jacobs made the Mancunian, and his matches against JJ Gale re-establishing Gale after a lot of doubt surfaced about the “Son of Southampton”, and Jay Joshua would be pushed to the moon after his belting match with Ishii at 14th Anniversary.
Back in Japan, Tomohiro was a key part of the Chaos-LIJ feud, serving as the challenger for Naito’s sole successful defence of the IWGP Heavyweight Title after his shocking title victory over the new leader of Chaos, Kazuchika Okada.
The 2016 G1 saw Ishii in seven “notebook” matches – with the idea that if you go below four stars in a singles match with Ishii, you might actually suck starting to become a decent take. (Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fake were those that couldn't get a notebook match out of Ishii that year.)
2017 would start with Ishii winning tag gold with Toru Yano before the pair dropped the belts to Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima). Ishii went on to have a couple of belters with Kenny Omega that year, with the G1 Supercard match between the two – the final of a tournament to crown an inaugural NJPW United States Champion – in many Top Tens in MOTY lists for 2017.
Tomohiro would become one-third of the Six-man title holders by winning a gauntlet match at Wrestle Kingdom 12 alongside Yano and Trent Beretta, but the next day at the New Years Dash show at Korakuen Hall, the team that lost the belts, Guerillas of Destiny and Bad Luck Fale, won them back.
In the 2018 G1, Ishii would go down from seven to just six notebook matches. (The hall of shame this time being Tama Tonga, Toru Yano and Juice Robinson when he hadn’t yet got his bad habits learnt from the WWE Performance Center out of his system.) But the biggest win that Ishii would get in a G1 – and probably in his whole career – was beating Kenny Omega the then-IWGP Champion in a tournament match, which led to Ishii getting an (unsuccessful) challenge for the World Heavyweight belt.
Eight would be the magic number for Ishii that year, as that was the number of matches that were “notebook” (Yano again was the rogue man in this G1 when it came to non-notebook matches.) This included Ishii becoming the opponent for the first ever Jon Moxley ***** match. But the momentum Ishii had from even the year before was slowing down.
At the G1 Supercard show where ROH and New Japan put on a show at the famed Madison Square Garden, Ishii could only get on the card for the Rambo match (NJPW’s “get guys on the card” match formatted similar to a Royal Rumble) on the pre-show. Two months later, he beat Taichi to overtake Hirooki Goto as the man with the most reigns with the NEVER Openweight Title. That reign would end at the hands of just-turned heel KENTA at Royal Quest at the Copper Box in London.
By the time of the 2020 G1, a lot had changed. Google’s Gemini thing has told me the “bloke ate a bat” story is a myth. So there goes that running joke I had planned for this series. But what we know happened was a lot of people got sick, a lot of people died and – in what was an unimportant thing in the larger scheme of things – wrestling shows would be affected.
In New Japan, shows would have attendance capped, with social distancing statutes in place and the limited number in attendance only able to make noise via clapping, something that would be in place for 2 and a half years.
The 2020 G1 – already moved to the fall because of the 2020 Olympics held in Tokyo – would play out in this restricted situation. But while others struggled to adapt, (why is everybody looking at Kazuchika Okada) Ishii … didn’t.
Ishii would have his most “notebook” matches yet in the 2020 G1, with every match in the block stage bar one (Yano – because of course it’s Toru Yano) getting 4 stars plus in my book of ratings.
During this time, Ishii would win his second of three NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Titles with Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi, with their win over fellow Chaos teammates – Okada, Yano and SHO being pushed as Hashi’s first ever title win. (Fun trivia fact associated with this is that the etchings in the belt’s record book has all three reigns Ishii had with the Openweight six-man title in NJPW saw him team with all unique partners.)
Tomo would be stuck in the Rambo match to decide the four finalists for the King of Pro Wrestling Title on the pre-show on the first night of Wrestle Kingdom 15. Luckily for Ishii, he was eliminated before the final four was decided.
But post-WK, Ishii would be booked in a notable feud against one of the main players of the two-show Kingdom event in Jay White, which culminated at Castle Attack with Switchblade winning the feud.
The 2021 G1 saw Ishii for the first time go under .666 for notebook matches, But in Big Tommy’s defence, he was in a block with Yano, Great-O-Khan, Tanga Loa and Yujiro Takahashi. Even Ibushi, Shingo Takagi and Zack Sabre Jr. – the man with the most notebook matches in the 2021 tournament – couldn’t get a ****+ match out of Yujiro or Loa.
The six-man tag reign with Goto and Hashi would be the longest in the history of the NEVER title at 454 days, with the 21st champions finally losing the belts to the House of Torture team of Evil, SHO (who had turned heel on Chaos to join HoT) and Yujiro. But a week later, Ishii would win the Openweight singles title for the sixth time, a reign that only lasted until Wrestle Kingdom 16 when EVIL beat Ishii.
In the newly formatted G1 in 2022 with 4 blocks instead of 2, Ishii ended up bottom of a 7-man group with a 2-4 record but went 6 for 7 on notebook matches with our old friend Yano being the rogue again.
The restrictions that had plagued Japanese entertainment for the previous 30 months were lifted in October and the first show back to normality saw Ishii and Ren Narita compete in a first round match in the tournament to crown a new NJPW World Television Champion. Ren would beat Tomohiro in a massive upset that saw people think that Narita could be the standout of the new crop of talent coming through. (God, remember the days when Narita was seen as the ace of the Reiwa Musketeers?)
Ishii was now the guy who would be beaten by someone who would get a new gimmick, and would be pushed so that guy would get a boost by beating someone as beloved as Ishii.
He would lose to David Finlay in Finlay’s first match as Bullet Club leader in the first round of the 2023 New Japan Cup. Ishii would go 2-5 in the end, finishing last in Block C with belters against Eddie Kingston and Shingo Takagi. The latter I watched in between movies in my attempt to do the Barbieheimer double. Little did we know that this would be Ishii’s final G1 to date.
For the last three years, Tomohiro Ishii would have to be involved in the play-in tournament (which made sense that he would be in this slot for the 2024 edition in canon after the bottom-placed finishes in the previous 2 G1’s) and in ‘24 would lose to Yoshi-Hashi in the semi-finals in his playoff tourney, then lose to Drilla Moloney in the ‘25’s play-in bracket, then in 2026 injury would prevent him from competing to enter.
For someone that is so synonymous with the match-quality standard that was associated with the annual summer New Japan singles tournament, Ishii never even got close to winning or qualifying from his block. While in a field of multiple Hall of Famers and massive stars trying to be the one of ten in a block (until that rubbish format change in 2022 and 2023) Ishii never even being mathematically in the hunt for qualification one time feels like a missed opportunity. Hell, Ishii instead of Goto to get out of Block A in 2016 would have been great. If Gedo was so insistent in none of the Reiwa Musketeers getting out of Block A in the 2023 G1, why not have Ishii to qualify from that block instead of Hikuleo? (I will never understand that booking…)
So what is Tomohiro Ishii without the G1 in the last few years?
He won the NJPW Strong Openweight Title from Gabe Kidd in an Ironman Match but with New Japan’s American adventure dwindling, title defences were almost non-existent, with just one defence of the belt against Drilla. Ishii would lose the title to Boltin Oleg at New Beginning USA and the chances are that Strong Title will never be seen again in terms of defences.
Ishii’s most recent (likely final) 5-star singles match would take place on a Pro Wrestling NOAH show on 2024.5.22 when he and Masa Kitayama had a match in the traditional Ishii match-style (but maybe even harder hitting!)
Ishii was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame in 2023, making him one of only seven to ever be inducted without winning a major "world" title from a major national company (from the era of national companies.)
Ishii has also spent more time in AEW as time has gone on. From making his debut with Orange Cassidy in a tag team match with The Butcher (RIP Andy) and The Blade, Ishii went from occasional guest appearances to making longer excursions in the U.S.
Of the 31 matches since the start of 2022 that didn’t go above 4 stars in my opinion, 13 of them were in the Tony Khan Universe of promotions. Some of the wrestlers on the other side of the ring are very good wrestlers such as Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong and Swerve Strickland. Even a great like Tomohiro can struggle to adapt from the strong-style standard to American TV wrestling. The match Ishii and Okada had on the January 18th, 2025 episode of Collison goes to show that. But the likes of Kyle Fletcher and “Hangman” Adam Page – both potential G.O.A.T 100 inductees if an updated version of this project happens in a decade (a big IF… this is very time demanding lol…) – have had belting matches with Big Tommy.
These excursions would take place while G1 season was ongoing. Ishii would wrestle at both the 2024 and 2025 All In on the pre-shows. In 2024, he teamed with Willow Nightingale to face Kris Statlander and Stokely Hathaway. (Stokely spinebusting Ishii got a Top 5 pop of the night.) And in 2025 Ishii was part of the Big Boom AJ multi-man tag. (Because of this match, I have added to my bucket list of things I really want to see in wrestling: my wish to see the Costco Dad and Tomohiro Ishii team up in the World Tag League.)
But the chances of anything like that happening are getting lesser it seems. Not because of wrestling politics but because it feels like Ishii’s body is not cooperating with him anymore.
Ishii, as of writing, is on the PUP list with a neck injury, being out of action since February. That doesn’t look good. What we get from Tomohiro Ishii in the future is very much an unknown.
What is known is that Ishii is the epitome of the banger match. Ishii has become the master of the “big meaty man” match. My dad loves Tomohiro Ishii. He is always watching an Ishii match like he’s looking at the son he wished he had. Ishii would become one of the most reliable people in wrestling for entertaining the masses.
He became beloved on three different continents and became someone to have on your card to help the next generation move up a level. In the process, he became one of the more unexpected late-career success stories in wrestling history.
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