10 More WWE Superstars And Their Japanese Counterparts
Some of WWE's greatest Superstars meet their Japanese equivalents...
Wrestling in Japan is often perceived to be wildly different from WWE. There are different philosophies, wrestling styles, and even the presentation of the wrestling itself is different. However, upon closer inspection, there are more similarities than one would initially expect. Specifically, many WWE Superstars have Japanese equivalents.
Surprisingly enough, Japanese wrestling has, in some respects, become more similar to WWE’s style of wrestling. Though the core presentation of wrestling as a sport is still present, there are elements of theatricality, gimmicks, comedy and storylines that weren’t present many years ago. As such, given how some wrestlers are presented, they actually have many similarities to some WWE Superstars.
This is a continuation of another article written back in November 2014, which took current WWE Superstars and compared them to equivalent stars in Japanese promotions. The wrestlers will be compared based on gimmicks, card position, booking, wrestling styles, and fan perceptions. Comparisons will also be drawn between the WWE Superstar in question and their Japanese counterpart, in order to determine which one of them best fits the gimmick or role that’s common to both of them.
Whatever the case may be, once you’ve looked at all ten of these comparison’s you’ll see that WWE’s style of pro wrestling and the Japanese style aren’t as foreign to one another as one might initially suspect…
10. Santino Marella
Marella was hired for WWE for one role: the comedy act. To the surprise of absolutely no one, he was very good at his job. Marella would play an Italian-American stereotype to great effect, and even though he was a certified low-card act, he got great reactions on a regular basis, both from children who bought into his PG-approved shtick, and from older fans who appreciated his comedic timing.
This created a character who rarely won big matches, if ever, but when he did win, he often got a huge fan reaction. Sadly, a neck injury forced him to retire from in-ring competition, depriving WWE of one of its funniest wrestlers.
Japanese counterpart: Tomoaki Honma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vBKcP7oyXA
Honma, like Santino, rarely scores victories in wrestling unless it’s against a true jobber. He made a name for himself in death matches in Big Japan Pro Wrestling, before becoming a glorified jobber and comedy wrestler in All Japan and in New Japan. However, while Santino was beloved for his comedic instincts, Honma was beloved for his comedic instincts and his determination.
In the lead-up to Wrestle Kingdom IX earlier this year, Honma suddenly started having great matches, but still kept losing. Over time, fans fell in love with his character, and they so desperately wanted to see him win, not unlike Santino when he came close to winning the 2011 Royal Rumble match.
So when Honma teamed with two bigger names in Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan at Wrestle Kingdom, and hit his trademark diving head-butt and got the three-count, the fans erupted in cheers. It was a true underdog story that finally reached its zenith, as the guy who was presumed to be the jobber-for-life scored a big win on the biggest stage imaginable.
So when it comes to being jobbers for their respective companies, Santino and Honma have a lot to ralk about.