I know that it’s painful, but for just a moment, hold back the tears and soul-wrenching insecurities that still live in the back of your mind, and think back to your junior high school years. There yet? Ah, excellent.
Now, picture Butch in your mind. Oh, you know Butch – - every classroom had one. That one gargantuan kid that didn’t quite fit in with the rest, be it due to a hyperactive thyroid or his taking a third jaunt through the 7th grade. That’s Butch. Normal kids’ heads barely reached his mid-teen pecs and he ruled the playground not for anything that he actually did or said, but because he looked as if he could take his hand and push it straight into your chest like Shin did to Ken in Hokuto no Ken.
Such a freak is Riki Choshu of Fire Pro Wrestling D.
Never heard of him? He’s an overseas legend that wrestled the majority of his career in New Japan Pro Wrestling where he was a 3-time IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and IWGP Tag Team Champion on an equal number of occasions. He’s considered to be one of the most influential grapplers of the ‘80s and ‘90s due to his popularization of the sasori-gatame or Scorpion Deathlock/Sharpshooter. Never heard of the game? Well, if you live outside of Asia, and aren’t a hardcore wrestling game fan, that’s not very surprising.
Fire Pro Wrestling D is one of the best grappling “simulations” out there (as far as staged fights between large, oiled men go) as it features a huge cast of Japanese and American legends (such as Antonio Inoki, Hulk Hogan, Tiger Mask, and Stone Cold Steve Austin) and one of the most in-depth create-a-player modes in gaming history. Those in the Fire Pro circuit praise developer SPIKE!’s attention to detail and accuracy when pitting wrestler vs. wrestler, as the company took every variable into account, ranging from fighting style to weight class. Although Ricki Chosyu looks as rugged as any other heavyweight grappler, he one-ups his peers in one area: he completely squashes lightweights.
Some may argue that a heavyweight shouldn’t even step into the same ring as a lightweight, but those people hate freedom, apple pie, and are filthy, dirty communists. Pitting legend vs. legend in dream matches is one of the charms of the Fire Pro series, and what has helped the game blossom into a 20-year old franchise. I’ve used Andre the Giant’s massive girth against munchkins like Chris Benoit on a regular basis (and to much success), but Choshu absolutely wrecks the little guys like no other wrestler in Fire Pro Wrestling D.
Try a hurricanrana? It gets reversed. Try to strike him? No, YOU get struck. Try a sunset flip? It’s night-night time. I first learned this searing lesson of overwhelming defeat when I put a well-skilled created wrestler (a lightweight named Lance Manyon), into an 8-man battle royale. Manyon shone like a million dollars. He pinned jabronies. He tapped out jobbers. But when it came to one Mr. Choshu, nothing, and I mean nothing, phased the guy. I amounted zero offense, and just how I behaved in real life when my personal Butch made eye-contact, I spent the majority of the time running away at a pretty high speed.
Believing that my loss was attributable to using a created wrestler that may not have had the proper points to contend with the big guy, I dove into some of the lightweights (also known as “juniors”) that are in the game’s default rosters. The Dragon Kid? A no go. Kedo? Nothing. X-Pac? Nada. Choshu owned the ring like Godzilla, and every lightweight character equated to millions of fleeing Japanese.
Choshu’s reign of terror pretty much begins and ends with the lightweights. When facing off against other bruisers, Choshu is still good, but nowhere near as punishing. If he were able to squash the big boys as effectively as he did the runts, Choshu would be in the running for greatest 2D videogame athlete ever. But alas, like the schoolyard bully of our youths, he turns puss when dealing with someone his own size. Still, if the grappler you’re using weighs in at under 200 pounds, Choshu is the man to (not) beat.
