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Prince Devitt


goodhelmet

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Or even better yet, tell us why YOU like him and what makes him a great worker (other than being funny on Twitter). You get riled up any time someone on this board dislikes a NJPW show or wrestler, but you never add anything other than that other people's opinions who you respect disagree so we must be wrong. Do you have your own opinion? Or do you just go by what your friends tell you?

This question was posed to rovert by shawmic in the New Japan thread and I thought the thread had the possibility to be derailed by name calling and such. Anyway, rovert, why do you like Devitt? What about his style makes him a good wrestler? What are the best matches you would point to in showing what a great wrestler he is?

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Since rovert isn't touching this, does anyone else want to praise Devitt and point to some great matches people should look for?

I wouldn't consider myself a Prince Devitt fan, which probably makes me the wrong person to answer this question, but I do enjoy some of his work. As far as the style goes pre-heel turn Devitt was won of the best at it. From an execution, timing and instincts perspective he knew what to do and when to do them in front of a New Japan audience. His selling is pretty patchy a lot of the time though, which is an indictment of the style and Devitt to some degree. Still, Devitt on a great day is good, and Devitt on a bad day is very good at the mechanical aspects of flying. One of my favourite matches of his over the past few years is his match with Alex Shelley from 2013/04/05.

 

Devitt in his current role is a different story given that I am really not a big fan of the act, and I find even some of the more highly praised Tanahashi matches pretty grating. However, he did have one very good match with Gedo on 2013/07/05 though.

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For whatever it's worth - and I'd have to go back and watch to get really specific - I used to think Devitt was pretty good. I liked his team with Ryusuke Taguchi. Really liked their match with Dick Togo and Ikuto Hidaka in '09, and for singles, I really liked his match against Kanemoto in the finals of that year's BOSJ tournament. As memory serves, he was an impressively slick and flashy dude who didn't really fuck things up. He started going downhill for me when he began focusing on his singles career, but he was still mostly alright, save for yelling "DANGEROUS!" before doing his top rope double stomp, which is some weird Western fetishization of puro coming full circle shit. By the time the Bullet Club stuff started, I thought he had fallen off a lot, though, and nowadays, I think he's unbearable.

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From what I've seen he's okay. I'd say the biggest problem with him is that he's so bloody hyper. The space between moves is important in wrestling in terms of controlling the rhythm and pace and Devitt has no idea how to utilise that space. If he did, he wouldn't have to use so many moves and the moves he did use would be more effective. Aside from that, mechanically he's fine. Cosmetically, I'm not sure jacked up little guy is my preferred wrestler type. His heel act doesn't bother me too much as he's really Irish looking and sounding and comes across like a whiny Brian O'Driscoll.

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I thought he was good until he started doing the current gimmick he's doing, I think its stupid & the whole act sucks. I enjoyed the match he had on the NJPW US Tour against Low Ki, his matches against the likes off Kenny Omega, Milano Collection AT, Taka Michinoku, Kushida, Pac, Kota Ibushi & a swell of others are all solid imo, but I can also see why purist would dislike him, I think he is good as a Jr, but never nothing more.

 

Soup23 is a fan, where is his comment to this thread haha!

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w/Minoru Tanaka vs. TAKA Michinoku/Dick Togo - NJPW 1/27/08

 

w/Minoru Tanaka vs. Jushin Liger/AKIRA - NJPW 2/17/08

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v5482303gWCmtwzQ

 

w/Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Chris Sabin/Alex Shelley - NJPW 4/5/09

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8x73q_mo...s-taguchi_sport

 

w/Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Dick Togo/Ikuto Hidaka - NJPW 4/12/09

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUrJCDw2_aU

 

vs. Milano Collection AT - NJPW 5/30/09

 

w/Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Chris Sabin/Alex Shelley - NJPW 7/5/09

 

vs. Naomichi Marufuji - NJPW 1/30/10

 

vs. Kenny Omega - NJPW 9/3/10

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnuxsv_ke...ce-devitt_sport

 

w/Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kota Ibushi/Kenny Omega - NJPW 10/11/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7-ygs0E-lg

 

vs. Kota Ibushi - NJPW 1/4/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuX-bz7u7ls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmKobdM4u8U

 

w/Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kota Ibushi/Kenny Omega - NJPW 1/23/11

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnvown_ke...e-taguchi_sport

 

vs. Kota Ibushi - NJPW 6/18/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOLUlFBHHkM

 

vs. KUSHIDA - NJPW 9/19/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcFoJssW8hI

 

vs. TAKA Michinoku - NJPW 11/12/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3imkZEhUdc

 

vs. KUSHIDA - NJPW 5/27/12

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xr68e2_09...-05-27-12_sport

 

vs. PAC - NJPW 6/6/12

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xrkluv_09...-06-06-12_sport

 

vs. Low Ki - NJPW 11/11/12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0gTnnsgHhk

 

vs. Low Ki vs. Kota Ibushi - NJPW 1/4/13

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIwASBS424M

 

vs. Ryusuke Taguchi - NJPW 2/10/13

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OhqWgWyhhk

 

vs. Alex Shelley - NJPW 4/5/13

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyrxwd_06...-04-05-13_sport

 

vs. Ricochet - NJPW 5/30/13

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x10dgah_0...-05-30-13_sport

 

vs. Gedo - NJPW 7/5/13

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11unrj_p...road-2013_sport

 

vs. Kazuchika Okada - NJPW 7/20/13

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1255tz_k...kita-2013_sport

 

vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW 8/4/13

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x134xrm_h...vitt-njpw_sport

 

vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW 9/29/13

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15eyra_h...vitt-njpw_sport

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  • 5 weeks later...

His Twitter is amazing lots of inside jokes, burials of upcoming opponents and pictures. One of the first signs of that the WWE interes was really real was the dramatic toning down on the swearing.

 

Meltzer compared him to Brian Pillman in this weeks Observer:

 

With his ring entrance, music and Chris Jericho jacket, Devitt just comes across as a major superstar. That ring outfit thing is an often overlooked aspect of people seeing you as a top guy. He works more like a 70s U.S. heel and reminds me a lot of the mentality Brian Pillman had when his body was breaking down and went from high flyer to thinking about nothing but ways to get heat.

 

 

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