Most underwhelming career relative to expectations

[dakohosu]

Who do you think has had the worst ratio of ridiculously high expectations from fans of the show and members of this forum to actual achievement in terms of their track record? Note that I’m not referring to general hype so don’t just automatically say Darvish or Snow Man as they’re hyped mainly for their celebrity status, not because they’re a candidate to reach the Final Stage or anything.

For me it would probably have to be Keitaro. Guy spends years getting blocked by Stage 2 despite several other competitors clearing it on their first try; he finally reaches Stage 3 after like 10 years of trying which everyone figured he would absolutely demolish once he reached there, and then he goes and flubs the Sidewinder of all obstacles..... he’s definitely got potential but clearly pressure compromises his performances massively.

I’d actually say Darvish fits into the opposite category, in that he’s had a really good career relative to initial expectations. A lot of people figured he was a joke competitor for a long time because of his comical antics and face paint and everything; no one would’ve expected him to reach Stage 3 in a million years. It was only since maybe Sasuke 34-35 that people started to take him seriously, beforehand he was seen as just another mediocre celebrity.

[m4tt3r0x]

Good topic. My top 3 excluding Ketairo who is easily in the top 5 at least:

3. Takeda. As my favorite competitor since I was a middle school aged kid, he was one of my childhood heroes, but let's be real. The guy has one of the most atrocious gas tanks on Stage 3 ever. I wouldn't be surprised if he failed the Gliding Ring in 23 or 24 had he cleared the Spider Flip. On top of that you always hear, "Takeda would have flown up the Final Stage's rope climb had he just ever gotten there." Please, please, PLEASE, give me a break. I think I have seen him climb a rope ONCE in Sasuke's style ever and it was at a Maguro Festival, and while it wasn't bad, it wasn't as fast as Nagano's climb on the same day and it wasn't anything special lol.

2. I hate how obvious of an answer it is, but Tomohiro is overhyped, but not on this forum. I haven't seen any indication that he was even equipped to come close to beating Sasuke 31's final, let alone 38 or 39's. Still a great athlete.

1. This is gonna be controversial on here, but I think the most overlooked underwhelming competitor was Kongu. Was the guy a beast? Absolutely. Was he a great competitor and a great guy on top of that? I believe so. Was he gonna clear Sasuke 24's Final Stage had he not gotten tangled up in the safety rope... this is where I have to hop off the Kong Express. I honestly can't say I remember perfectly, but I don't think it was obvious at all he was gonna Kanzen in 24. On top of that, while he actually was very strong on Stages 1 and 2 and quite adept on Stage 3 for someone of his size, even on the Crazy Cliffhanger in 31, I think it was obvious he was never gonna be anywhere near any of the former champions' levels, barring Akiyama's, for Stages 3 and 4. On top of that he had a fairly inconsistent track record on Stage 1 for a long duration of his career.

Honorable mention is Bunpei. Would have been a top 5 with him in it, but I wanted to open this post with a roast of Takeda for some reason.

[furatachi]

Here would be my Top 3:

1) Toshihiro Takeda- The amount of times he reached the Third Stage(13 Overall), only to gas out so frequently was common. THREE failures on the Pipe Slider was the best he could do and didn't even touch the landing platform at any of those three attempts(Gassed out in 8|Broke his shoulder in 12|A weak jump in 17). Most would say he would of have had a fighting chance in the Final Stage, due to the amount of rope climbing he had as a firefighter. But Takeda climbed one rope and that was the Rope Climb in Stage 1 on a regular basis when it was there from SASUKE 3 to 17. I would have low expectations of seeing him climb a 10 meter rope in the Final Stage, considering that he is one of the more heavier All-Stars.

2) Naoki Iketani- A former Sportsman and record holder of the Monster Box, he did show promise in only his 2nd attempt, when he reached the Pipe Slider, but ran out of gas. However, every time he attempted the Third Stage after SASUKE 4, he regressed back. Whether it be the Cliff Hanger in SASUKE 10 and 11 or the Body Prop in SASUKE 13, 14, and 16, he just kept moving back from his first attempt. And then, he struggled to even clear Stage 1. Only twice did he clear Stage 1 after SASUKE 16(SASUKE 26 and 27) but fell on the Double Salmon Ladder.

3) Keitaro Yamamoto- 5 times in a row he was denied a Third Stage attempt in the Second Stage, only to break through in SASUKE 39. Most stated that he would actually clear the Third Stage on his first attempt. He ends up failing the Sidewinder, which was modified just for SASUKE 39.

[subtleagent]

Ryo. Though, I think this one has been pegged before. He only gets to the final in 27 due to luck and while he does so again in 30 this time through his own merit, he follows this up with 6/7 Stage 1 fails from 31 - 37. He's had some really good runs (39 being one of them), but given his inconsistent track record vs what he's capable of I can't help, but feel let down by his career as a whole. Especially when some of his runs (ex. Spending 20 seconds spraying up before the Spider Walk in 28, His botched Tackle technique in 32, and rushing the Fish Bone in 37) were of unnecessary tactics that backfired rather than lack of skill or motivation.

[darthvaderlim]

I'd go with Shinya, given the amount of upper body training he had with Cliffhangers. However, he has only cleared Stage One in his career and has often gone out early in Stage One.

Araki is also another example, given his performance in Vietnam. He has only cleared Stage One twice so far, making to the Cliffhanger in 36. Only time will tell whether he would match Tada's result.

[subtleagent]

I just realized 30 in general probably had the most disappointing long run results from that group of competitors. You get Shinya who was a lucky one trick pony, Kawaguchi who was hyped to death, but never really delivered, Drew... that one needs no explanation, Ryo for the reasons I mentioned above, and Hioki who at best is Cliffhanger jump fodder, yes you can argue his consistency and great personality make up for that, but it's clear at this point he's not kanzen material. And of course you get Shunsuke and Kanno who decline, Asa who's forced to retire, and Lee who retired after this tournament.

[dakohosu]

Takeda is effectively the Keitaro of the Golden Era if you think about it. Both struggled massively on stages preceding those that everyone said they would absolutely dominate. Takeda could never clear Stage 3 despite supposedly being a sick rope climber that would help him on the Final Stage, while Keitaro and Stage 2 I don't need to elaborate on.... Mind you, I'm far more forgiving of Takeda given that he was set back by numerous injuries and really tried his hardest to build up his upper body stamina but could never break through. Keitaro from what I understand never seemed to train swimming despite most of his fails being either due to the Backstream or due to recklessness in order to leave himself enough time for the Backstream.

And yeah Kawaguchi is an obvious one but there's a good reason for that. Everyone seemed to hype him up as Yusuke's second-in-command but firstly, the difference in capability between him and Yusuke was still massive, and secondly, I'd argue Drew was probably a more appropriate second-best competitor. Drew, for all his dastardly doings, actually had the capability to achieve Total Victory, while Kawaguchi was really consistent in reaching Stage 3 but constantly flubbed the Cliffhanger repeatedly. Except for 35, his performances weren't much better than, say, Hioki or Jun, yet he was constantly endowed as Mr. 99... that said at this point he's effectively being treated like a celebrity and being given hype for the sake of hype.

And to be honest I feel like a lot of Unlimited Cliffers and STQ-ers would fall into this list. The reason being that we obviously see a lot of footage on how capable they are on multiple variants of the Cliffhanger etc. which makes us excited to see what they're made of on Stage 3. The issue being that a lot of these guys don't seem to train the stage that will allow them to get that far/only train on Stage 3 and a bit of Stages 2 and 4; Shinya's a great example of this. He built up a reputation for his Cliffhanger antics and then fails the first obstacle in his first attempt due to his lack of agility-based training. Ryo failed Stage 1 four straight times before breaking through. I kinda get it given that Stage 3 is the most badass and brutal stage, but these guys have to accept that they're never going to see the success they work so hard for if they don't develop their all-round ability.

[LusitaniaAngel313]

Yeah I would no doubt say Kawaguchi. He's been 98 or 99 quite a bit as of lately so it's clear the SHOW thinks highly of him. Does he deliver? Haha no. He IS #Casual after all (especially lately...). Please take him off your pedestal. It isn't helping him.

[dakohosu]

Feb 14, 2022 4:47:25 GMT -5 LusitaniaAngel313 said:

Yeah I would no doubt say Kawaguchi. He's been 98 or 99 quite a bit as of lately so it's clear the SHOW thinks highly of him. Does he deliver? Haha no. He IS #Casual after all (especially lately...). Please take him off your pedestal. It isn't helping him.

I think at one point he was getting a lot of hype due to his performances, given that he was the only other Finalist from the RISING era except for Yusuke and Ryo but the latter wasn't marketable anymore due to having a terrible few runs. Him, Drew, and Yusuke were sort of the 'Big 3' from I'd say Sasuke 32-35 but Drew being a foreigner naturally got sidelined.

Now though, I just don't get it. He's now failed Stage 1 three times in a row and even his best efforts on the current Stage 3 have been outshined by newer competitors like Tada (who's been double-skipped in the last two tournaments) and Yoshiyuki who wouldn't be given much screentime if it wasn't for his association with Yamada. Yet Kawaguchi's numbers still position him as the strongest non-champion which he just isn't. Fundamentally the main reason for him getting so much hype in past tournaments is no longer the case, so why does he still get the same treatment when Ryo who attempted the same Final as him and did way better got digested constantly when he started failing Stage 1?

There is clearly a reason because the producers aren't stupid enough to give him #98 based on his recent performances alone; he supposedly has an 'in' with Inui but so do most competitors at this point and no one seems to like getting high numbers anyway? This is obvs subjective but he's also not exactly the most exciting on-screen personality either, unlike Hioki who clearly gets a lot of screen-time due to his quirky family man vibe. The only reason I can think of is the affiliation between Sasuke and Per-Adra, because his career change was when he REALLY started getting Darvish levels of screen time, like fluff pieces before every run etc.

[subtleagent]

Kawaguchi always fell into that same category Nagasaki and Kanno do (and it seems like they all hang out) in that he doesn't train that much with the SASUKE crowd and only kicks in a bit before the tournament. And now he's coming close to ending up in the same decline that Nagasaki and Kanno are, except instead of being Dragon Glider fodder, he's become Warped Wall fodder.

[dakohosu]

Feb 14, 2022 11:41:54 GMT -5 subtleagent said:

Kawaguchi always fell into that same category Nagasaki and Kanno do (and it seems like they all hang out) in that he doesn't train that much with the SASUKE crowd and only kicks in a bit before the tournament. And now he's coming close to ending up in the same decline that Nagasaki and Kanno are, except instead of being Dragon Glider fodder, he's become Warped Wall fodder.

He just needs to fix his technique imo.

Granted this might be because his stamina has taken a hit recently, but he continuously uses the same failed technique where he only gives himself enough time for 2 attempts even when he has 30 seconds left on the clock; and then when he does attempt the obstacle he only uses about half of the allotted run up, doesn't run up that high and relies on an explosive jump (which is a rock climbing move but it clearly doesn't work on the WW).

Obviously discounting 39 due to the rain but I was shouting at my screen when he tried the exact same method in 38 as he did in 37. The only thing that somewhat gives me a bit of hope is that unlike Shunsuke and Kanno who've failed the Dragon Glider repeatedly of their own accord, two out of the three WW fails Kawaguchi's experienced has been due to wet weather. And the fact that he can at least make it past the DG which is by far the hardest obstacle in Stage 1 (in fact I think S1 is ridiculously unbalanced because of this obstacle) is somewhat reassuring that he's still athletically capable. Also with the nerfed Stage 2, I reckon he's got maybe one last Stage 3 run in him left before a further decline similar to maybe Nagano's late track record.

If he fails for a fourth straight time in Sasuke 40 and it is completely bone dry then I will definitely lose most of the faith I have left in him, because that's concrete proof that he's lost his drive. As it stands he's only legitimately failed the wall once out of the last three attempts.