>>15275308I noticed this phenomenon when NJPW started getting popular with tertiaries who started watching it when Jericho came around. Smarky western fans, the ones who would end up following AEW when that kicked off, seem to have this annoyingly narrow view of NJPW's content. Because it was the land of "Le 6 star match", everyone assumed every single wrestler and gimmick was directed at being workrate smark classic fodder.
These people would parrot Meltzer and hate on based acts like Taichi and Yujiro Takahashi. You even saw it with Tama Tonga signing with WWE. He was never a 5-star classic caliber wrestler, but he was solid and did great character work. Yet, the moment he left NJPW, "NJPW fans (Read: AEW fans)" immediately went on the "We don't want him lmao. Great pick-up Hunter. We'll be over here with Ospreay and Okada."
NJPW has far more variety and depth in its talent pool than western casuals give it credit for, leading to a skewed interpretation of what's actually over in the company. That skewed interpretation perfectly reflects in how the talent they pretend to cream their pants over are being utilized in AEW and how little they seem to care about the change in their presentation and general plummet in star power.
tl;dr - AEWfags ruin everything, ffs
