Discuss here.

I'll remain positive since I presume no one is going to vote for him.

 

 

A few yearso this post would've been full of rage and capital letters but I've matured since that (and that involved watching less Kanemaru matches). There are certain things Kanemaru is good at. He's ready to absolutely kill himself with stupid bumps. This doesn't mean that much by itself, but when a better worker reels him in and makes him work their pace it can either lead the sheer ridiculousness some (like me!) are going to love (vs. Takaiwa) or just very good matches (vs. KENTA). He has very good fundamentals. This is almost a given for almost all All Japan/NOAH guys from that time period but he's not someone who'll blow a bunch of spots or bump inappropriately or whatever. What he lacks is understanding of pro wrestling, selling nuance, creating struggle and charisma/presence and unfortunately for him those are the things I care about the most. I'll also say there was a period in 2010-2011 where he bizarrely started building his matches around Headlocks and became a very good, perhaps even great? (okay probably not) worker for a while. But yeah.......Yoshinobu Kanemaru is not very good at pro wrestling and I do not enjoy watching him pro wrestle. Also his Brainbusters look terrible and devalue the move. Do a Suplex or do a proper Brainbuster. Should also note that despite being the hardest pushed junior in NOAH history he has never been as over as his peers.

Don't know if I'd vote for Kanemaru but I really really enjoy his early 2000s NOAH stuff, I'm up to 2002 and imo he's easily the best junior in the promotion by that point sans Ogawa. Would like to hear a case for him as someone that's mostly unfamiliar with his post-NOAH work.