Rock Region, New York Subregion, Second Round: (8) AJ Styles vs. (9) Vader

Please don't make a kayfabe case for AJ. Just say he's small, does flips and worked in Japan, so I love him. Personally, I think they're about equally great, but Vader was far more dominant and would rip AJ to shreds.

 

I voted for AJ because he is smart enough and quick enough to keep this match going for an extended period of time. The longer this goes, the better it is for AJ Styles. AJ doesn't need to use a Styles Clash to win. He has the Spiral Tap, Calf Crusher and Phenomenal Forearm to use as a way to put down Vader.

Vader was a force in the early to mid 90's, especially in WCW. But his career ended poorly. He was losing to guys who at the time, were not major stars, like Mark Henry and Bradshaw. Plus, he lost the title at the time to Ron Simmons, who wasn't a huge star by any means at the time, and honestly wasn't a big star as a singles wrestler.

AJ has beaten this eras big star in John Cena on numerous occasions. He won the WWE Championship less than 1 year into coming into the company. He is one of the biggest stars in the biggest wrestling company. Vader's WWF run was not any where near as successful as AJ's.

 

I'll give AJ credit for winning the WWE Championship which is something that Vader never did accomplish, but honestly, what BIG names has Styles beaten? Let's see, we've got Angle, Tanahashi, and Cena. I guess you could throw in an older, over the hill Sting and other over the hill stars from his days in TNA. Angle, Tanahashi, and Cena are basically it, though. Who has Vader beaten? Inoki, Misawa, Sting, Hart, Flair, Foley, and others all relatively in their primes.

These 2 performers careers mirror each others a lot. Both have been all over and both have experienced success all over. Vader, though, was more dominant and has defeated more "stars" than Styles has. Let me whip out my crystal ball and say that maybe, in a few more years, Styles will rack up those kinds of wins and he'll become a more prominent name in the business, but after reading all the arguments and looking at both men's careers more carefully, I'd say it'd be foolish to think that Big Van Vader wouldn't come away with the win here.

Vote Vader.

 

Vader beat Bret Hart because Stone Cold interfered and Stunner'd him. He beat Inoki after Inoki had already wrestled a match against Riki Chosu. I could be wrong, but when has Vader ever beaten Ric Flair? He pinned Anderson in a Handicap match but as far as I know, he never pinned Flair. Sting and Misawa were huge names, but Cena and Tanahashi are equally big names. Vader was dominant at one time, but let's not act like he NEVER lost. He lost to Michaels, he lost to Sting, he lost to Flair, he lost to Foley, he lost to Ron Simmons, he lost his IWGP title to some guy named Salman Hashimokov (who I'm aware was a legit badass, but he did nothing in wrestling other than defeat Vader and lose his IWGP title in his first defense).

Vader can beat AJ. AJ can also beat Vader. To say Vader in his prime would squash AJ in his prime is reaching a bit. Both became big stars in Japan and America, but as I mentioned in my original post, AJ got to the top in both countries quicker than Vader did. Other than the argument, Vader is big and AJ is small so Vader crush AJ, I see no reason why I should vote Vader over Styles.

 

AJ has been on the top in every company he's been in while the same can't be said for Vader.

Yeah Vader was big in NWA/WCW and Japan (I think) but in WWE he was booked strong to start but eventually was used to put smaller men over and I believe that's what would happen here.

not to mention like Spidey said in David vs Goliath matches David always wins in the end

 

If we're going to just ignore the circumstances that occurred that gave way to AJ being pinned by Ellsworth, then I'll choose to ignore them for Vader too. Vader was pinned clean by both Bradshaw and Edge. May not sound that bad but this was pre-Hall of Fame Edge. Shit, this was Pre-Brood Edge. And Bradshaw was still Justin Hawk Bradshaw.