SANADA

[Grimmas]

Control21:

SANADA has become a bit of a divisive wrestler in recent years. While he has become one of the established names in NJPW since his arrival several years ago and was recently the IWGP world champion, there are still a good number of people who aren’t sold on him. Still, SANADA’s output has been consistent, and he often has good-to-great matches with people who mesh with his style. He probably isn’t someone I would have nominated in 2018 or 2019, but in 2024, I think he has done enough where it is worthwhile to look at his overall body of work.

w/Manabu Soya vs Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi (10/23/2011)

vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (11/5/2016)

vs Kenny Omega (7/28/2018)

vs Kota Ibushi (7/26/2018)

vs Kazuchika Okada (2/10/2018)

vs Kazuchika Okada (3/24/2019)

vs Kazuchika Okada (8/3/2019)

vs Yota Tsuji (6/4/2023)

vs Kaito Kiyomiya (7/25/2023)

vs Tetsuya Naito (1/4/2024)

[Tetsujin]

He's such a bad wrestler that it actually annoys me how far he has come. His series with Okada is up there with the worst big matches I've ever seen. He presents himself as a great matworker while being lame as fuck in chain and mat wrestling. His strikes are also shit, and that's a more common flaw in modern wrestling, but still. He can't even apply his stupid tazzmision finisher well. He can't pace his matches well, with spots like his fucking stupid paradise lock, or him slowly walking directionessly though the ring/ringside (once you notice it you can't unsee it) trying to figure out what to do next to fill time.

I'll give him something: he has a weird charisma by not having charisma at all. It's hard to explain or even understand, but if you've seen enough of him you'll know what I mean. He's the most boring of the most boring guys imaginable, absolutely zero personality or traits, he's a random NPC on a bad mobile game, but somehow, someway, that makes him kind of compelling for some people (I mean, he's still a failure of a main event project, but he has some fans).

I'm sure there was a time in this plane of existance when he was decent enough. Decent midcard guy, something like that. Probably before arriving to New Japan. But he's been trash for too long now. There's literally no chance.