Ace

17 comments

1. This is probably my favorite world title reign since I started watching.

   I love during this time of great change in the company, while so many people are driving themselves insane trying to adjust – Okada, Ospreay, Finlay, and every single returning Young Lion, just to name a few – you have this guy on top of all of that who has finally found himself and is so calm and content with where he is. He has this quiet confidence he carries himself with and he really feels like someone at the top of his game.

2. The only thing I don’t like is his new music lol

   Cool, confident, calm, world-beater SANADA is great. Love the Deadfall, love that Skull End somehow slipped down to like a C-tier finisher lol

   I do miss his “skeleton samurai” aesthetic, but sparkly trunks and pure confidence is also good!

3. I was never a Sanada guy, even going back to his AJPW days, always found him kinda boring. I’ve fallen behind a bit on puro just due to a lack of time to watch everything so when I heard that NJPW put the belt on him, I was very surprised and skeptical, but seeing him in action I get it. I still don’t see much in terms of true charisma but he definitely has a confidence and a swagger about him that really comes through, and he carries himself like a top guy and a champion. He’s always been as smooth in the ring as anyone so I wasnt really worried about the in-ring side of it, just everything else. I’m interested in seeing where this reign goes.

4. Ace lol

   Dude is a charisma vacuum with garbage mic skills and he is so lacking of a character that his 2 characters were stoic silent dude wearing a mask called cold skull and currently a create your own wrestler from a wrestling video game

   His finisher sucks still, the only feud anyone is interested in him is a match with much more charismatic leader of his last fiction and it is up to that man to carry the feud

   He sucks so hard the only match they could make for him in the crossover PPV with AEW was with another charisma vacuum in jungle boy and the entire feud if you call it that was each other saying how much they haven’t heard of each other

   Ace my ass lol. He is New Japan’s Baron Corbin/Apollo Crews and honestly Corbin has more personality easily

   And before some dickhead says it- no I am not a Westerner who loves only western wrestling. I am Asian born and bred and has been in Asia his whole life

   Also his faction name is almost as lame as he is. Oh wow a faction of 5 guys. What do we call them? Just 5 guys. Mind blown

   Lastly Taichi and Douki have much better charisma and presence than Sanada ever will.

   Seriously Gedo Taichi is so amazing and you choose bore skull to be the guy to dethrone Okada. Really

5. Not really a fan but its cool how he’s finally clicked for a lot of people.

6. Always loved him despite his flaws. I understand peoples criticisms about him but he’s an awkward himbo and he’s my favourite.

7. Just Five Guys is appropriately named, because Sanada is just a guy. He’s not anything close to an Ace.

8. Most boring Ace ever.

9. Not my Ace.

   He can’t even carry the new guys to good matches in the G1, he fails the most basic requirement of being the top guy. In fact, Shota and Tsuji both outperformed him lmao, so very very sad.

10. You could have picked a better picture. You can barely see him because SANADA is in the way.

11. i cannot believe he kept the bleached beard for so long when he looks like that clean shaven

12. Mmmmm not ACE. Okada is still Ace.

13. That’s Four guys

14. I love the fact that this group is filled with a bunch of people who have primarily been heels for several years and yet they are getting babyface responses from the crowd and are responding in-kind as if they are a babyface faction. Like, I fully respect that they are just a group of 5 Guys that just do what they want to support each other and so they don’t necessarily fall into a face/heel dynamic easily.

    ​

    I loved Sanada in LIJ but as time went on I definitely felt what was great about him slowly fading. The transformation to what he is now? Night and day. in LIJ he was like a delinquent with a bunch of potential but wasn’t meeting it. In J5G he got his shit together and I am loving every moment of it. Everyone in the group is just being elevated.

15. He finally made me a fan. Not like that means anything but I’m glad I can enjoy Sanada now.

16. I love the fact that SANADA has gotten people behind him more now than before. Seeing people change their opinions about the guy is a wonderful thing. I’ve been a fan of his for years (something that I’ve gotten a lot of shit for), although I would agree that he has needed to show more charisma to elevate him to the next level.

17. He and NJPW have done well in repackaging him as a top champion but he’s still got a ways to go to feel believable in that position. It’s tough having to compare him with Okada, Tanahashi, or even just the popularity of Naito, but the main event of NJPW is a high bar for a reason

    Jay and Ibushi managed to clear that bar in their own ways but SANADA hasn’t yet, him and Finlay being the next replacements up in the chain of AJ/Nakamura -> Omega/Naito -> Jay/Ibushi is fitting for their potential but they’re a step below those guys so far and while I’m supporting both I’m unsure whether they’ll reach that rarefied air

    SANADA has a good foundation with his unit, the novelty of his new attitude, and his building rivalries with certain top names but I’m hoping he can step up to his side of the bargain for a WK main event – if things stay the way they are then it’ll be Naito’s (assumedly) main event rather than his. That’s still a compelling story, but it doesn’t bode well for SANADA’s opportunity