>>13555128>workers and marks alikeMost of those have zero idea what actual wrestling is and have lived in a tiny bubble. When your only exposure to wrestling is WWE and WCW, of course you'd think Angle/Michaels is the greatest thing ever because in the context of the tiny bubble - it probably is. But if you look at in an overall context, you can't give Jun Akiyama vs. Kenta Kobashi a 4 and a half star and then give Michaels/Angle a 5 star match. AJPW/early NOAH contests were a work of art and so far ahead of the competition it's not even funny. To this day it's probably the hardest, most devastating and best wrestling era there is. In contrast to that WWE matches are incredibly soft and by the numbers.
Again, I can say that Dave has gotten a LOT softer than he used to be when it comes to rating matches and giving the Gargano/Cole matches 5 star is probably something Dave would have shot himself in the head in the past before giving that, but it is what it is. If Angle was wrestling in his prime today, he'd have gotten 50 of them, but he isn't.
On that note, if Angle was sent in AJPW and wrestled that style, there's no doubt in my mind that he'd have killed it. But he didn't, he was forced to wrestle in the incredibly safe and soft WWE style and he made the most out of it. But there's only so much you can do when you're restricted as hell.
