Quoted By:
I shoot would love to see GOK win the cup, but I can't disagree with most people here that we haven't seen much justification for that type of push lately. It's frustrating, bc at his best (vs ZSJ, vs Naito in 2021, vs Jay '22) he can be really fucking great, especially when he leans into his amateur experience, but the explicit narrative of him being in a slump for so long, plus in this year alone having him basically bury his own athletic abilities in a match with a junior, looking like a complete jackoff in the cage match, and now getting kwabbed by Okada have made it hard to see them reverse course on him soon. It's sad, because in a power vacuum you would think the heir apparent to a major faction would be a guy to elevate, but if it happens this it it will certainly feel abrupt.
The fact that him vs Ospreay was an opening match in the G1 rather than even a semimain event says a lot about how they think of him. I really hope we have a 20 man G1 this year and he gets a strong showing. His wrestling is as good as any of the R3M and his character work and physical charisma (see webm) is underrated. With a few tweaks of his gimmick to be more serious I could easily see him at least being secondary championship material.
I stubbornly supported Wato even when things were rough and look at him now, injury notwithstanding. Same with DOUKI, and now he has a prominent win over Hiromu leading into BoSJ. I As bad as things look for him right now, and regardless of how few people here see him going anywhere, I'm going to continue believing in GOK and walking the treble path alongside him.
