But if you want to play it that way then Liger is 3-0 against Benoit in 90, 95, and 99. Seeing as Chris (who btw is 8 inches shorter and at the time was much much less muscular) split matches with Sid in WCW that must put Liger on equal, if not higher stature than Sid no?
We really going there? Liger> Benoit, Benoit>Sid, Liger>Sid? It just doesn't work. Look, i adore Liger but Benoit is much more suited to taking down larger wrestlers than Liger is. Just looking at their styles and how well Benoit has done vs larger athletes in his career will show it all.
I'll admit he never faced a seven footer but he has beat prominent Japanese heavyweights in Nishimura, Satoshi Kojima, Kazuchika Okada, and Hector Garza. No they're not the biggest names in the world but it at least proves he can hang in their class. He beat Daniel Bryan, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and Eddie Guerrero who all went on to have great careers and be heavyweight champions in WWE. All those were small guys that beat the bigs. Why couldn't Jushin?
Nishimura is 6ft 1 220lb. That's the same size/weight as Shawn Michaels, hardly an example of form against a big man. Kojima is 250lb and 6ft 0, which is fine but still not close to a 7foot 300lber. Okado is 6ft 3 which is closer but still 80lb lighter at 240. Hector Garza is close to Eddie Guerrero in size/stature and was washed up when Liger went over.
I'm just saying, by far the closest to Sid he's faced is Joe, and he couldn't breathe. Sure Liger was out of his prime here but he's got another 40lb and another half a foot to handle in Sid. And Sid at his peak compared to Joe in TNA? Come along, you say Joe was being pushed hard at that point, he was dominating the X Division of TNA way before TNA was the size it is now. Sid is a multiple time champion in WWF and WCW, main eventing Wrestlemania's vs Hogan. It's incomparable.
Are you kidding me? NJPW/IWGP has weight classes, the Junior title is just as important as the heavyweight. Liger is an ELEVEN time Junior title holder. Let me put this in perspective for you. Since it's inception in 1986 the IWGP Junior title has changed hands 66 times. To compare we can look at the WWE title that since 1986 has changed hands 101 times! One hundred and one! Liger held the junior title 11 times which is 7 times more than the next guy, nearly triple in fact. They don't hand the belt out like candy.
I'm not saying that the junior title is on equal level with the WWE or WCW title because it's not. But being an 11 time champion definitely puts you up there.
Tbh, I think Japan having weight classes works against you here. The only logical reason weight classes would exist is because juniors cant realistically go over heavyweights. Otherwise they'd merge it all.
More importantly, it means Liger has significantly less experience against big men than Benoit/Jericho/Bryan/Guerrero/Shawn had. Ofc they've gone over more large athletes, they've had to adapt and tweak their movesets to be able to handle them if they had any chance of reaching main event. That's not something Liger has had to do to dominate his federation, and as such he'll be largely unprepared for Sid.
I love Liger but he doesn't win here in kayfabe. You could argue he has had a better career than Sid if you like, I think you could convince me. You can't convince me he wins a kayfabe match.
