Which Injured Competitor has a Better Shot if They Return?

[subtleagent]

So I know the obvious answer would probably be Asa since he made it to Stage 2 6/8 times and Stage 3 5/8 times with some sick times while Shinya has only cleared Stage 1 once on an easy course with the slowest time and his results are generally joke competitor level fails. But the question isn't so much who has the better chance so much as it is who would be more likely to perform well again despite their injuries if they ever get the chance to return (though given both are in their 40s now with said injuries a return is highly unlikely). 

I'm tempted to say Asa would perform well in spite of his injury, but then again looking at Kanno and to a lesser extent Takeda who's careers really took a hit due to said injuries, I could easily see his performances in competition suffering due to being out of practice. The last we ever really saw of Asa was at Yuuji's wedding IIRC, and the last time we saw him train at all was in 2018 where he definitely looked a lot thinner and given all that, I can assume he hasn't trained much since then if at all.

Then you get Shinya who still trains, but even when he was healthy his performances were mediocre at best. Agility/lower body is definitely his weakest point and with two step fails, two Warped Wall fails, and a Hedgehog fail that weakness really comes to light. His back injury is clearly bad enough that the producers don't want to risk him wrecking himself further. Though he does still train so given he makes it past Stage 1 he has a good sporting chance at Stage 3.

[m4tt3r0x]

What even was Asa's injury?

[dakohosu]

Shoulder muscle tear apparently.

There are so many more competitors we could list here. Kanno and Okuyama being two of them, both of which competed in a similar era.

[subtleagent]

I left Kanno out because he still competes albeit it's ill-advised. Apparently they were gonna ban him from SASUKE if he didn't get surgery on his shoulder, so he eventually did.

Okuyama I probably could have put given as far as I know he did heal up, though he doesn't want to risk another injury as he does have a job and a family. Then again Asa and Shinya do too. I mean Okuyama is an absolute powerhouse and if anyone ever had a shot of beating Stage 1 in their 50s or 60s sans Kenjiro Ishimaru (he would have in 17 had he not biffed the wall on his first go), it would be Okuyama. And as we've seen in these last several competitions guys in their 40s are making it to Stage 2 and even Stage 3.

That all said, Okuyama hasn't competed in 9 years and as we saw with Bunpei that can really take a toll on your athletic prowess. In Bunpei's case he clearly got unlucky on the Jump Hang Kai, but being 6 years out of practice would have likely stopped him later on anyway. From what he said, he didn't seem to feel much discomfort running, but yeah his stamina likely would take a hit.

[dakohosu]

Feb 4, 2022 16:23:01 GMT -5 subtleagent said:

I left Kanno out because he still competes albeit it's ill-advised. Apparently they were gonna ban him from SASUKE if he didn't get surgery on his shoulder, so he eventually did.

Okuyama I probably could have put given as far as I know he did heal up, though he doesn't want to risk another injury as he does have a job and a family. Then again Asa and Shinya do too. I mean Okuyama is an absolute powerhouse and if anyone ever had a shot of beating Stage 1 in their 50s or 60s sans Kenjiro Ishimaru (he would have in 17 had he not biffed the wall on his first go), it would be Okuyama. And as we've seen in these last several competitions guys in their 40s are making it to Stage 2 and even Stage 3.

That all said, Okuyama hasn't competed in 9 years and as we saw with Bunpei that can really take a toll on your athletic prowess. In Bunpei's case he clearly got unlucky on the Jump Hang Kai, but being 6 years out of practice would have likely stopped him later on anyway. From what he said, he didn't seem to feel much discomfort running, but yeah his stamina likely would take a hit.

Where did you hear that about Kanno? I mean that’s completely fair as TBS don’t want a law suit over someone just not knowing when to quit due to injuries. Also when was this, it's hard to keep track of how many times he's been injured....

[subtleagent]

It was on his YouTube somewhere from what I was told. But yeah clearly TBS was fed up with him wrecking himself on the course. I think he got the surgery after 38 given there was a video with his arm in a sling prior to 39. I assume that was where he mentioned it.

I recall they also told him not to compete in 34 because there was no way in hell it was safe for him to run the course with his tendon still healing.

[dakohosu]

Feb 5, 2022 2:07:04 GMT -5 subtleagent said:

It was on his YouTube somewhere from what I was told. But yeah clearly TBS was fed up with him wrecking himself on the course. I think he got the surgery after 38 given there was a video with his arm in a sling prior to 39. I assume that was where he mentioned it.

I recall they also told him not to compete in 34 because there was no way in hell it was safe for him to run the course with his tendon still healing.

Yeah I'm not surprised at all.

I mean the guy seems to be pretty reckless, like how he injured himself on the Spin Bridge in 27 but then proceeded to attempt Stage 2 and then dislocated it. He also injured himself in 32, 33, and 38. He also injured himself sometime in 2018 hence why he didn't compete in 36. Dude's basically made out of glass at this point, and understandably TBS don't want to bear the brunt of something going seriously wrong to the point of legal complications, just because Kanno doesn't know when to call it quits. You know my opinion on this, personally I think he should just retire as it's not like his recent results are worth the injury risk. 

On the topic of this thread, I think Okuyama would've probably had a good chance of doing well for at least 3-4 years had he not retired after 29. He probably would've made Stage 3 in Sasuke 30 and 31 at least given his mad consistency, and I never got the impression that he was slowing down or regressing despite him already being in his mid-40s. Asa I feel similar about given that he was also incredibly consistent, but he basically locked himself into a Hioki situation where he'd never clear the Cliffhanger transition.

[subtleagent]

I'm pretty sure Okuyama would've definitely been capable of getting that far despite his age, it's just he really didn't want to risk that injury becoming worse. Supposedly he rolled his ankle on the Cross Slider and didn't feel it until after his run in 29. I mean doing the Spider Walk on a broken ankle sounds painful on it's own, but damn.

Worst case with Asa I could see him getting locked in a never ending void of Dragon Glider fails like Kanno and Nagasaki. Last we saw he was still pretty lean, though he appears to have lost quite a bit of muscle mass. And with an injury such as his that basically forced him to retire, I do worry that it could end up worsening should he continue competing.

I'm honestly kind of surprised they still allow Kanno to compete at all given his track record of injuries. You'd think at some point they'd say "hey, you're going to destroy yourself if you keep this up." I mean they kind of did by making him get surgery lest he not be allowed to compete anymore, but still.

[zoran]

Feb 5, 2022 16:34:23 GMT -5 subtleagent said:

I'm pretty sure Okuyama would've definitely been capable of getting that far despite his age, it's just he really didn't want to risk that injury becoming worse. Supposedly he rolled his ankle on the Cross Slider and didn't feel it until after his run in 29. I mean doing the Spider Walk on a broken ankle sounds painful on it's own, but damn.

Worst case with Asa I could see him getting locked in a never ending void of Dragon Glider fails like Kanno and Nagasaki. Last we saw he was still pretty lean, though he appears to have lost quite a bit of muscle mass. And with an injury such as his that basically forced him to retire, I do worry that it could end up worsening should he continue competing.

I'm honestly kind of surprised they still allow Kanno to compete at all given his track record of injuries. You'd think at some point they'd say "hey, you're going to destroy yourself if you keep this up." I mean they kind of did by making him get surgery lest he not be allowed to compete anymore, but still.

I wonder if Kanno could have leveraged TBS at all into paying for a bit of his surgery by saying his absence would harm ratings given his previous success and sorta recognisability but I don't have anything to really base it off.

[subtleagent]

Doubt it. Inui doesn't really give him much editing-wise. He was mostly digested from 29 - 31 as well as 38 and 39. If he were a draw to the ratings they probably wouldn't digest him so much.

[dakohosu]

There's no way he could've done that because TBS would've just said 'either you get surgery or you're not competing' and given that they probably don't care whether Kanno continues or not given that he's effectively a thing of the past as far as prominent competitors go; it's Kanno that wants to compete, TBS could probably take him or leave him. He gets digested because he's no longer relevant and he just fails the same obstacle on Stage 1 time after time.