February 12, 201312 yr comment_5534821 This is an aside but the last time I remember a junior having a real buzz surround him was with Minoru Tanaka. KENTA? Marafuji? Nakajima? Ibishi? All got significant hype as juniors. Unless you were referring to NJPW only.
February 12, 201312 yr comment_5534828 This is an aside but the last time I remember a junior having a real buzz surround him was with Minoru Tanaka. KENTA? Marafuji? Nakajima? Ibishi? All got significant hype as juniors. Unless you were referring to NJPW only. Please not the sentence that included the reference to "my circle," a circle that generally doesn't care for those guys.
February 12, 201312 yr comment_5534829 Ah, fair enough. Juniors are out of fashion around these parts and DVDVR anyway, as is the style they work, has been for a long time. Is the shift in trends in any [part due to the departure of Rob Naylor? He always seemed to rep the spectacular flippy floppy guys. Most people getting hype these days are veterans working classic style or guys who do the simple things really well like Mark Henry. In other corners someone like Ibushi has been getting crazy love for a few years, along with a lot of Dragon Gate workers.
February 12, 201312 yr comment_5534837 I didn't agree with Rob's views on guys like that at all when he was around.
February 12, 201312 yr comment_5534843 I didn't agree with Rob's views on guys like that at all when he was around. I know, but he was pretty enthusiastic and infectious. His presence amongst the site leadership probably made it more acceptable for people to openly like people working the acrobatic modern junior style. Seems that the majority switch away from that in those parts has coincided with his absence.
February 12, 201312 yr Author comment_5534875 Equating New Japan juniors with acrobatics is something I never really understood. Is there really a huge gap between the high-flying offense Misawa and Kobashi pulled out, compared to the high-flying offense Liger and Otani pulled out? Liger and Otani probably did more dives, but I would argue that they spent more time working holds than the AJ heavies did. Plenty of New Japan juniors matches are more grounded. I'm not sure I've ever seen Liger work a spotfest. He would be a great wrestler even if he didn't do a lot of flying, and watching old footage, he did a lot less flying than his reputation suggests. His acrobatic ability probably is part of his rep - right or wrong - but it's not the reason Liger was a great wrestler. He didn't really work like Rey, Psicosis and Juventud, or the Michinoku Pro guys.
February 12, 201312 yr comment_5534991 Also, spectacular flippy floppy guys are still getting repped. Just not the Japanese ones.
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