>>16983483Possibly, but his matches aren't great, and it's moreso because of mental reasons than physical ones. He's stubbornly clinging to this teenage notion of ''EPIC BADASSERY'' where he has to cram as much badass shit into his matches and come across as a big tough guy instead of trying to have a good match. The stories of the matches all revolve around how difficult it is for the babyface to overcome badass Mox, and it sucks, because it's a difficult thing to sell. The Darby match exemplified the issue perfectly. It gets worse once you realize that it's an incredibly easy illusion to shatter, as proven by the clip of him losing at that BJJ amateur tournament. His grasping at badassery used to be deathmatch stunts, and now it's MMA larping.
I was hyped up about his IWGP title run, because I was a big DEAN mark way back when, but his run was so deflating, man. Even when chalking it up to poor booking and administrative issue, he doesn't exactly make his case any easier to defend with whatever it is he's been doing for the past 4 months. I want to like him, but he keeps finding a way to kill the interest for some godforsaken reason.
