Am I Missing Something?

[Jack-Hammer]

Over the past few weeks, I've been watching some clips, sometimes entire matches, of some of the more raved about stars of New Japan Pro Wrestling like Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii and a few others. This isn't a thread to put down New Japan or anything like that, I've enjoyed the matches I've been watching for the most part, but I'm just not seeing what all these dirt sheet writers are raving about all the time. Again, not that these aren't talented wrestlers putting on entertaining matches, it's just that, to listen to the constant praise of various writers, especially Dave Meltzer, you'd think that Tanahashi and Okada especially are two guys who can walk on water. Again, I can't emphasize enough that this isn't a put down of these guys or New Japan, but I read the reports of writers on prowrestling.net or pwtorch.com raving about it constantly; Dave Meltzer seems to have a permanent erection for New Japan and can't put it over enough. I'm just wondering if I'm missing something, is there an aspect of things I'm not seeing or haven't seen thus far, is this dirt sheet writers geeking out and making seem like it's much stronger than it actually is or what?

One thing I have noticed is that the hits seem to be much harder than what we see here in the states; some of them look like they're knocking the crap out of each other. Partially because of such physicality, does New Japan only hold one or two shows a month in order for talent to sort of rest up and recover? Another reason I'm wondering about that is due to champions frequently having runs lasting 150, 200, 250 days or more, yet said champions only defend the titles maybe once or twice the entire time.

Again, I'm just curious to get an idea of what's what as it seems like these writers constantly heap praise on anything that isn't WWE or TNA related.

 

[ABMorales787]

Yeah, Meltzer overhypes the Japanese stuff. It tends to be very good but most of the time there's no real investment in the match outcome. Your favorite wrestler could lose and they'd still just rave about the match.

Its a pretty fun style to watch but of you're the kind if fan who follows wrestling because you invest in the personalities like most western fans, you'll be pretty disappointed.

People rave about Japanese women's wrestling being vastly superior to Sasha and Bailey's work which isn't really wrong. But you're sure not gonna get fans crying for the outcome of a Manami Toyota vs Cutie Suzuki match like we got with Bailey beating Sasha.

 

[harrythem]

I see it as people loving this indie band that travel the world but they're not widely known yet you can love their stuff. Then their music picks up a bit of steam and you hear it and think "yeah, that's not bad. Nowhere near as good as you've told me, but alright".
That's how I see most peoples opinions of Japanese wrestling.

Saying that though, it does look like it hurts like fuck, which I'm still not sure is a good thing as, isn't the idea to make it look that way without actually hurting each other?

 

[BaconBits]

I'm not even sure Meltzer is really as into Japanese wrestling as he claims. It's just that the Japanese style of wrestling is the kind of stuff his paid readership (the smarkiest of all smarks) is going to be really into. I can't say that I would really blame him for pandering to his audience. It would be what's best for his business.