console wars aside, I dont understand how people can shit on this guy or have him as a non-favorite. He brings that "Sacred Martial arts"-y feel to wrestling , basically his entire style. Back when he was in the WWE, I was in college and it was easy as heck to trick dumb normies who think " karate is cool" or women take meme "self defense" classes into watching while convincing them wrestling is actually like a martial art. Even njpw cant pull that off.

he's doing that gimmick to the moon on aew and it still works to make him look like the perfect fake tough guy. So the gimmick and character is a natural draw no matter the opponent imo.