Thread: NJPW - TPWW ***OFFICIAL*** Discussion Thread -- New Japan of America announced
View Single Post
Old 08-12-2019, 06:14 PM   #1584
Fignuts
Hey Mister!
 
Fignuts's Avatar
 
Posts: 54,947
Fignuts makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Fignuts makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Fignuts makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Fignuts makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Fignuts makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Fignuts makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Fignuts makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Fignuts makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Fignuts makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Fignuts makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Fignuts makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Fignuts makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)Fignuts makes a lot of good posts (200,000+)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Conspiracy Victim Vito View Post
Yeah it's mostly rooted in KENTA being a NOAH trueborn. Japanese culture seriously values company loyalty. A portion of the audience will always hate KENTA, because he will always be seen as a representative of NOAH. You can see in pretty much every KENTA match so far, the crowd has generally cheered his opponent because he's not seen as 'their guy'.

It's why despite his popularity, SANADA (orginally an All-Japan guy) will never surpass Naito in terms of popularity and will probably never break out from under his shadow.

Even Okada isn't fully exempt from this. He at least went to the NJPW dojo and through the Young Lions program, but he still originally started at Toryumon. Yes he is still extremely over and a megastar by Western standards, but there is still a small pocket of the audience who would never accept him as a true representative of NJPW. That's why, while popular, he's still not as popular with the NJPW audience as Tana.
Yeah, a lot of people don’t realize how the intricacies of Japanese society play a large part in booking. Naito not being the top guy despite being even more popular than Okada is another example.

Naito isn’t a surging star, and he’s over with Japanese fans because he doesn’t get the top spot. Japanese society is highly predetermined in some ways. You’re tracked at a young age and by like age 18 your future is set. Naito is the guy who wasn’t chosen. He’s the hero for the slackers. To US fans that means he should win. But to the Japanese fans it would feel too unrealistic. That’s why LIJ gets hotter with Japanese fans where, in the US, people would have given up on Naito by now.

Moreover, a decent portion of Japanese fans would reject Naito as the top guy for that reason. They view Okada as naturally the top guy and deservedly so. To put Naito in that spot would be insulting to how society is supposed to be.

Naito won’t win till he’s no longer part of LIJ.

This is very similar to why Kawada was so rarely champion in AJPW and Misawa was always the top guy.
Fignuts is offline   Reply With Quote