|
Post by mlev76 on Oct 13, 2018 12:46:38 GMT -5
I find his gimmick to have as many annoying aspects to it as Omega's and his matches have progressively gotten less interesting the more he's been featured. The Tanahashi matches have all been good, but a step below what I'd call great. The Omega title win and the Okada G1 match were the two highlights of the year with his title defense against Finlay right behind those two. He's clearly too big a deal and works well enough that he'll likely make my top 50, but if I don't see anymore of his matches this year, I'd be totally fine with that. Which is a shame because I really liked him in his excursion matches in ROH last year.
|
|
|
Post by thefourmanband on Oct 13, 2018 15:10:49 GMT -5
I have him right on the outside of my top 100 now. I didn't really like the most recent Tanahashi match he had, which may be his last shot at getting around some guys who are out of the year or who I likely won't see much of the rest of the way. since he's a bubble guy I'll likely give his Power struggle tag match a look but for someone who is as high on the card in New Japan as he is I thought he'd place a lot better.
|
|
|
Post by bossrock on Oct 13, 2018 23:06:51 GMT -5
Not sure there's anyone who's improved more in the course of a single calendar year. Outside of the Kenny and Finlay matches, the first half of his year was pretty bad. But from the Juice match onward, he's seemingly found his voice as a heel. His G1 run had too many ref bumps and chairshots, but it was still one of the better runs of the A Block (which admittedly wasn't a high bar to clear) and far better than Tonga working similar matches. The Strong Style Unleashed tag and KOPW Tanahashi match saw him really thrive in his new role as a power-hungry usurper rather than a bad Bray Wyatt imitator. His mediocre run until the Juice match will definitely keep him out of the top 50, but there may be enough where he finds a spot on the lower end of the list.
|
|