Bernkastel
Reaper of Miracles
I question how "great" some of those Japanese guys are but that's another story for later.
Awesome. I question how great the likes of Austin/Rock/Cena are all the time.
GUys like Bryan and Punk didn't just get over because of the Japanese stuff.
Where else would they go? What other medium would they have to hone their skills? Mexico? They'd have to spend allot of time in WWE farm promotions honing a very likely different craft. The strong style has it's roots in Inoki, who got them from Rikidozan. So small guys would be like Thesz in the 50's. All technique and no huge size or charisma. Meaning they don't get far in today's American product.
People like Randy Savage, and Ricky Steamboat showed what people that size can do in America and did it in matches that entertain me far more than most of the Japanese guys did. We'll also ignore that those people got over far more for their ability to talk rather than their in ring work.
You are comparing apples to oranges. What American audiences expect to see from their wrestlers is very different from what Japanese audiences expect to see from their wrestlers. That's why the likes of Andre and Hogan worked different styles in Japan.
And with Rikidozan it wouldn't be any different. He'd knock the big man around and keep him grounded. He held his own against a Thesz in hour long bouts regularly. And lesser men than that have rendered Andre helpless.