First Round: Miami - Abyss vs. Jumbo Tsuruta

[klunderbunker]

This is a first round matchup in the Miami Subregion. The ring and arena are universal throughout the first round and the organization is not a factor. There is a 20 minute time limit. Vote using any criteria you like. Most votes in the poll at the end of the time period wins. In the case of a tie we will go off of the number of written votes. In the case of a second tie, both are eliminated.

Location: American Airlines Arena, Miami, Florida.

Abyss

Vs.

Jumbo Tsuruta

Voting is open for 4 days.

 

[D-Man]

Call me crazy, but I think Abyss is shit. I can't see him hanging with his Japanese opponent who has tons more skill, intelligence, and experience.

Tsuruta wins this one.

 

[Blade]

Abyss has the home field advantage. Apart from that, he's got nothing. He would be outwrestled, overpowered and outmatched by Tsuruata. Abyss is completely irrelevant in the world of wrestling, even if he is Hogan's apparent golden boy at the moment. The most he's done is won the NWA title when the NWA title didn't matter. And the only good matches I've seen him in were ones where he was carried by Christian and Angle. Tsuruta won titles that actually mattered. And had great matches where he wasn't carried. Abyss shouldn't win, at all.

 

[Ferbian]

Quite honestly yet another one I can't brag about knowing, but I know Abyss, and I find him to be an overrated rip off of Mankind, I've never liked Abyss, and I'm actually gonna have to draw some biased opinion in this, and vote for the guy I don't know, but who can't possibly be worse than Abyss..

 

[Mr. Truth]

Japanese legend versus Hulk Hogan's "protege." Going with the Japanese legend here. Abyss hasn't done anything for me to say he's a good wrestler, or even a good character in wrestling.

 

[SHAYAN_CENA_Y2J]

How come can sb put an awful wrestler who hasn't done anything special in this business over a legend like Tsuruta?

Tsuruta to win this one?

 

[Theo Mays]

Umm yeah, I can't stand Abyss and Jumbo is a freaking legend. While I'm not quite familiar with his work I have done my research and I'm pretty sure Abyss would do nothing to win this. Maybe James Mitchell gets involved, but even then I'm not sure Jumbo would care and he should win this rather easily in mind. Abyss will hang in there, just because he can match size with Jumbo, but that is it. Give me the Japanese legend here.

 

[GenMe]

Abyss IMO is just a rip off of Mick Foley. He is a great hardcore wrestler, But other than that, that's it. Jumbo is a legend, He was a top japanese wrestler with tons of respect in and outside the ring. So Jumbo gets my vote in this match.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

Tsuruta is someone who I've seen little of, but what I've seen has impressed me. Abyss used to impress me when he wielded weapons and had James Mitchell etc... but since his 'return in 2008, he's been well dreadful. His storyline with Foley was atrocious and this Hogan stuff is mediocre at it's best and awful at it's worse. Here's a match between Tsutra & Misawa (it's in Japenese) and a reason to vote for Tsutra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMpHibYk4f8&feature=related

 

[Kashagi]

Abyss has twice now made me change the channel due to embarassment. The guy needs acting lessons and should learn to be more entertaining in the ring while hes at it.

Looking over Jumbo, he seems much more appealing then one of the reasons I dont watch TNA.

 

[Shocky]

Don't look at the current abomination of Abyss when judging this match. This Evad Abyss character is fucking awful. The power of Hulkamania running in Abyss because of the Hall of Fame ring is stuff written from nightmares, and it unfortunately is on our TV screen each and every Monday night from 8-10 pm.

Abyss back at the dawn of TNA was pretty fucking beast though. Dude was a legit monster compared to everyone else in the company. He towered over everyone, and TNA booked him to be unstoppable. Some of the shit he would do with Sabu in particular makes me cringe just thinking of it. Was Abyss a hybrid of Kane and Mankind, surely, but he was enjoyable back in his day.

However, Tsuruta wins this on merits alone. I'm not going to pretend I've seen 5 matches, but I respect what he's done for the business. He's at least a 4 time world champion, depending on what you consider a world title. It's 3 more then what Abyss has.

 

[The People's Peep]

i agree with everyone else. the first time i saw abyss, i actually thought it was mick foley. he is unoriginal and garbage. ive never heard of Tsuruta, but from the picture, he looks like he is a legend in japan. and in japan, especially in the old days, they had some good skills.

easy decision here. Tsuruta by far.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

Well, it looks like much doesn't have to be done here on my part. Although not as well-known to English speakers as other Japanese wrestlers, Tsuruta's legacy in Japan is unquestionable, and I'd even go so far as to say that he outshines Giant Baba, the founder of AJPW. Furthermore, this man did the seemingly impossible by getting better with age; sure, his last few years with AJPW saw him compete in joke matches, but we can chalk these up to serious health problems. Finally, I'd just like to say that his early 90s feud with Misawa is the epitome of how to create not just a new star, but a future professional wrestling icon.

 

[ZeroVX]

This is not good for the Monster. In terms of appearances, Abyss in his prime looks like he would rip someone apart. Tsuruta just looks like a legitimate wrestler. Thing is, Tsuruta could easily wrestle circles around Abyss. He has an excellent combination of power and technical wrestling in his moveset, whereas Abyss is pure power and brawling. Both of these guys are world champions in their respective companies, but Tsuruta has become a bonafide legend in Japan, while Abyss has become second-banana to Hulk Hogan and hasn't gone near the world title in almost four years. Have to give it to Tsuruta here.

 

[jmt225]

Jumbo Tsuruta, easily.

All of you have heard of Misawa and Kobashi, well believe it or not... Jumbo Tsuruta is right up there with them as far as legendary Japanese professional wrestlers are concerned. He had one of the greatest matches these eyes have ever seen against Ric Flair in 1983, and he's had countless classics against the likes of Genichiro Tenryu and Mitsuharu Misawa throughout his wonderful career.

Abyss is a good wrestler for a big man, and I've enjoyed his work against AJ Styles and Sting, but that's all his career has been thus far and most likely that's all it'll end up being. He will not go down as one of the all time greats like Jumbo, and he shouldn't defeat an all-time great like Jumbo in this tournament.

If you have any respect of the true legends of the sport of professional wrestling, then you'll do the right thing here and vote a TRUE legend over a mediocre wrestler with a stupid ass gimmick.

 

[Tastycles]

I must say, I'm suprised by the outcome at present in this match, but it is deserved entirely. Jumbo Tsuruta is one of the biggest names in the history of Japanese wrestling and has held titles sanctioned by the AWA and NWA, some of which he won in America, before uniting a whole host of titles to make the coveted Triple Crown championship.

Abyss is alright, but he's still yet to produce anything looking like a convincing performance in a non-gimmick match. Sorry, Mankane, you're out of your league.

 

[Razor]

Jumbo Tsurata, according to my wiki search, is apparently very bad ass. Like kicked some Misawa ass bad ass.

Abyss....well, let's put it this way. The only person I would vote Abyss over is Evan Bourne. And even then, it'd be a tough call for me. And everyone knows how I love to hate the jobbing little fuck known as Evan Bourne.

Abyss is simply outmatched. Jumbo has beaten Misawa and Kobashi and has proven himself to be very important in the history of Japanese Professional Wrestling. Abyss....well, he has Hogan's "Hall of Fame" ring.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

Jumbo Tsuruta in a reasonably easy match. At Abyss' peak, he's dangerous, a tad crazy, and maniacal. Things that Jumbo can work with and exploit. Jumbo is the thinking man's wrestler. He can out think some of the best wrestlers in the world. And Abyss doesn't rank in my top 100 greatest wrestlers.

Jumbo would get a fight from Abyss, but in the end, The Ric Flair of Japan will win this.

 

[deem]

On the Tsurata camp obv, but in kayfabe clearly this would be close. Abyss is booked as an unstoppable monster, and if we were taking Tsurata from the latter stages of his career, which is where I'm most familiar with him, I might actually vote for Abyss.

However, at his peak Tsurata was the unquestionable ace of Japan. He was THE one to beat. Abyss power is completely negated by someone the size of Jumbo, and with the diverse depth of Tsurata's offense I can't see him sticking with Abyss.


Tsurata wins. Never in a squash though, it's a monster booked to be close to unstoppable at his peak.

 

[Suneeboy]

Abyss is shit, and I don't give a damn who he is going up against I'm not voting for him. He's out of shape, annoying, and irrelevant. Jumbo FTW.

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

This one's not really a question. A fat, horrible wrestler vs. a Japanese legend. It didn't take me more than a split second after reading to hand this one over to Tsuruta.

(To be fair, I could even go as far as to say I would have voted for anyone going up against Abyss)

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Abyss has got homefield advantage in this match, but I think that's really all that he's got. Jumbo Tsuruta won a lot of prestigious titles in his career. Former AWA World Heavyweight Champion, first AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, three time NWA International Heavyweight Champion, seven time AJPW Unified World Tag Team Champion, nine time NWA International Tag Team Champion and so on and so forth. Jumbo Tsuruta had wins over the likes of Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody, Genichiro Tenryu, Terry Gordy, Dick Murdoch, Abdullah the Butcher, Harley Race, etc. Jumbo Tsuruta had a very impressive career with wins over some of the biggest and most well known names out there.

I know that the way TNA has Abyss now isn't what I'd consider Abyss in his prime and it's unfortunate that the shit character Abyss has been for well over a year now will probably overshadow the monster that he once was. Abyss did have a 56 day run as NWA World Heavyweight Champion and he did defeat Sting for the title. Probably the brightest moment of Abyss' career. However, Sting was nearly 50 years old when the win took place. I'm far from an expert on Jumbo Tsuruta, but he had an impressive career that I think is just too much to ignore when put up against Abyss.

 

[DirtyJosé]

Wow, this is one I would have tossed to the crowd to decide, and you all seem to feel that Abyss = Shit compared to this guy. Thanks for the random vid posts. I feel there's nothing left to do here but vote Tsurata.

 

[X]

Fairly easy victory for Jumbo here. Abyss used to be pretty good, almost like a modern day Mick Foley-lite when it comes to taking bumps, but his only real accomplishments in the wrestling business are winning the NWA title due to a disqualification against Sting during a time when the title was pretty meaningless. Jumbo on the other hand DOMINATED the top promotion in Japan, AJPW, for a number of years and won the Triple Crown on three occasions as well as holding the AWA World title when it was still one of the top 3 organizations in the United States. It's not like Jumbo is a small guy either, he's big and built well, he'd handle Abyss pretty easily I think.

Yep, easy victory for Jumbo here as he goes over Abyss with relative ease.

 

[gd]

Abyss was pretty half decent awhile ago, but has been a pretty awful ever since the whole ring thing. Much less interesting than the monster character. On top of that, he's nothing to write home about in the ring, unless he's being set on fire or something.

Jumbo seems to be pretty athletic for a big guy and won a fair share of gold in Japan, which probably more meaningful than Abyss's world title during TNA's infancy, which was a dark time indeed. R-Truth was a main eventer then.