IWGP hvy title on Liger

[Black_Flag_Of_Ulster]

everyone always complains how WWF/E holds back juniors and pushes
'weightier' talent. I say its no diffrent in Japan.
No matter how you wanna look at it, the IWGP heavyweight title is the biggest prize in NJ. The junior's belt is highly respected; its the most prestigious belt of its division in the world. but it just isn't as great in people's eyes as the heavyweight belt partially because it was held by Inoki, Fujinami, Choshu etc.
That's why I think it's pretty lousy of NJPW to not have given Jushin Liger a run with it. After the climax of the junior division in 1997, there was nothing for liger to win there and that got worse when Ultimo Dragon, the second biggest name in the juniors had to retire. so Liger tried to get into the heavyweight division, but since his commitment wasn't sincere from the start and since he wasn't even pushed he never came close to a heavyweight title.
Considering the decline of the IWGP title in the second half of the 90s, a title run by Liger would have done the title's reputation well.


Thanks to BadNews, who contributed to this post.

[One to Remember X]

finally your speakin' my language. Welcome to the dark side

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

and did you check the date of the original post?

[edgehead1984]

probably not

[Luds]

I'd bet 100$ on it

Anyways, this has been looked at before. Liger isn't disrespected at all IMO. He simply is a junior heavyweight.

So was Fujinami, but he actually became a heavyweight. If Liger was able to put some weight on and keep a high level then I'd actually like to see how well he could look facing the good heavyweights. But he simply is too short and too small to defeat Nagata, Tenzan, and so on... Wouldn't look good.

[BadNews]

Well, since I mentioned for whatever reason and Flaggie won't be able to defend herself for a few weeks, I'll jump in and say: Did I really ever think anything like that?

[Pheonix_Chi25]

Well flag you are not the only one. I'd endorse a Liger Heavyweight Title run, Minoru "Heat is dead" Tanaka is pushing to get into the heavyweight division as he feels he has done it all in the Junior division. If you look at wrestling lately many former Juniors have held, or are holding , Heavyweight titles (Benoit, Guerrero, Jericho, Austin Aries). So a Junior holding the heavyweight title isn't a bad thing. It's how you market it and how you push it or the wrestler.

Hope it makes sense.

[Black_Flag_Of_Ulster]

All I really wanted to say is that a Liger reign couldn't have been worse for the IWGP title than anything that happened to it in the last few years.

[Luds]

You're right about that. If they did want to have Liger get the title for a run they could have arranged it in a way that didn't look bad.

Liger could have realistically won it from a short champion like Fujinami, Nagata or someone like Nishimura.

Nagata could have wrestled a 60 minute technical battle to Liger and lost in the rematch or so...

[DANGEROUS DAN]

Granted Liger is too small. But it is the Inoki influnce that would rather put the straop on more credible 'talents' like Yasuda. I mean after all, Jushin got smoked in his wisely taken and prepared for shoot. Yasuda made it count in the eyes of teh next generation of NJ fans who are tired of all these 'fake' tough guys.