WWE Vs. NJPW: Head To Head

8. Promos

Daniel Bryan Kazuchika Okada
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You needn't grasp Japanese to gauge which native New Japan stars are effective promos.

Hiroshi Tanahashi whips fans into a frenzy during his post-match victory routines, Minoru Suzuki creates an atmosphere of terror laden with gallows humour. Tetsuya Naito incites a wavering, molten reaction with his cryptic mischief.

In sweat-drenched backstage segments framed as realistic press interviews, the English speakers sell the effects of war and their personas alike with deadpan wit (Zack Sabre, Jr.) an intoxicating blend of comedy and menace (Jon Moxley) and endearing, heart-on-sleeve grit (Juice Robinson). These segments achieve in about a minute what WWE fails to do in 15: connecting performers to the public.

In WWE, there are great talkers—Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan, Paul Heyman—but the clearly imposed material elsewhere ranges from mundane to inauthentic to totally f*cking embarrassing. In fact, it is scarcely believable how piss-poor most of the promos are. The native Japanese promos are more intelligible to English speakers than Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville’s disaster a couple of weeks back.

Seth Rollins tried to get 'GLB: Godzilla-lookin' bastard' over the other week, but it didn't get over because, at the mercy of super-sh*tty material, he was a Goofy-lookin' bastard.

Scorecard: WWE 0-3 NJPW

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!