Austin Region, Lexington Subregion, First Round: (6) M. Misawa vs. (27)Greg Valentine

[klunderbunker]

This is a first round match in the Austin Region, Lexington Subregion. It is a standard one on one match. It will be held at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.

#6. Mitsuharu Misawa

Vs.

#27. Greg Valentine

​

Polls will be open for three days following a one day period for discussion. Voting will be based on who you feel is the greater of the two competitors. Post your reasons for why your pick should win below. Remember that this is non-spam and the most votes in the poll win. Any ties will be broken by the amount of posts of support for each candidate, with one vote per poster.

Also remember that this is a non-spam forum. If you post a response without giving a reason for your selection, it will be penalized for spam and deleted.

 

[Bernkastel]

If only we could have subbed Greg for his more successful father this would have been a more interesting match. For me personally. Seriously people, do yourself a favor and watch some Johnny Valentine matches. The man was fantastic.

Greg was a top territorial star who rose to the peak of his popularity during the national expansion of the 80's. Winning the WWE intercontinental title at the height of its prestige. Before that he won a myriad of regional titles, but was never super popular. Not enough to win a world title. Misawa was and did. He won All Japan's Triple Crown five times and was AJPW's most popular, and arguably most successful champion. He was one of the top wrestlers in the world in the 90's from any criteria you want to use.

I suppose I'll save the bulk of my Misawa arguments for later, but I think he should have a pretty easy victory against Greg Valentine here.

Vote Misawa. Or Meltzer will come find you.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

This feels like a routine first round contest. Misawa is the big babyface. Valentine is the middle of the pack heel. They'd have a grand match-up no doubt, but ultimately Misawa would win. He's just a bigger deal and a better wrestler to boot.

 

[justtxyank]

If only we could have subbed Greg for his more successful father this would have been a more interesting match. For me personally. Seriously people, do yourself a favor and watch some Johnny Valentine matches. The man was fantastic.

Greg was a top territorial star who rose to the peak of his popularity during the national expansion of the 80's. Winning the WWE intercontinental title at the height of its prestige. Before that he won a myriad of regional titles, but was never super popular. Not enough to win a world title. Misawa was and did. He won All Japan's Triple Crown five times and was AJPW's most popular, and arguably most successful champion. He was one of the top wrestlers in the world in the 90's from any criteria you want to use.

I suppose I'll save the bulk of my Misawa arguments for later, but I think he should have a pretty easy victory against Greg Valentine here.

Vote Misawa. Or Meltzer will come find you.

Definitely voting Misawa, but I think you don't give Hammer the credit he deserves.

First, the knock that he won regional titles is weak considering that was winning a top title. His work outside of WWF wasn't part of national tv programs. He was always a top heel everywhere he went until later WWF.

As to winning a world title, he was supposed to be the one to take the title off Backlund and Bob refused.

Still, it's a mismatch and I wouldn't argue otherwise.

 

[Tastycles]

Misawa is pretty good, and I'm sure he'll go far with people far more knowledgable than I backing him. All in, he is a pretty spectacular name whilst Valentine is not really much more than a solid hand. You need people like that, but they don't need to win matches like this.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Essentially, you have the perennial top babyface against the career mid-card/tag team heel. In these sorts of situations, the top babyface pretty much always goes over and here'll be no different.

Misawa, like all the Japanese wrestlers in these tourneys, carries the "he's a god in Japan" card, though Misawa definitely has a legit claim to the title while Valentine was the somebody who could be depended on to deliver solid matches. This would probably be stiff as hell and there'd probably be no shortage of blood but I give it to Misawa.