New Japan : The cult of personality is taking over.

[seabs]

New Japan Pro Wrestling is the pinnacle of Puro, it boasts the Japanese John Cena in Hiroshi Tananhashi, the hottest young gun in Okada aswell as many great American imports including Alex Shelley and Karl Anderson. Now why have I chosen these as examples rather than the excellent Nakamura for example? These guys show personality, which is a bit of a rare commodity in most puro bar a select few such as Liger and Muta. A great example is Tanahashi vs Nakumura shown in the video below, one comes out with a stern expression ready for battle, sporting plain black hair and a generic red rope, the other comes out posing, rocking an air guitar and sporting blonde highlights. No matter how good Nakumura is he doesn't feel as special as watching Tanahashi, it's possibly my love of the American character formula coming out but I love uniqueness and in this land of stern faces Tana holds that in bundles.

A great match but the entrances tell the story of this thread:
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVEwhO5Z9Eo[/yt]

Feel free to debate or agree.

 

[Stopspot]

Agreed. I think that is part of NJPW's recent expansion. The fact that they have slowly started Americanizing their way to look at characters. In a modern society and with the rise of MMA pro wrestlers need gimmicks more than ever to stand out, since if you wanted to watched a stern faced asskicker you could just go and watch MMA. Some wrestlers can make the stern faced gimmick work but they more often than not has some kind of trait that still makes them stand out, be that size, charisma or ability to speak.

Dragon Gate is also working this formula with more out there and clear characters and it is working well for them. They aren't as big or established as NJPW but it's doing well for them.

A lot of active wrestlers would probably also say that you need personality nowadays to make it work. Bookers as well I think, because who would you rather book, the stern asskicker or the charismatic and out there character that draws in the crowd?