The All-Stars Without Their Individual Weaknesses?

[GlobalNinjaFan]

As we all know, several of the All-Stars encountered major hurdles during their time competing, either self-inflicted or not.

Akiyama had his degenerative eye condition, Shingo had his shoulder injury, Bunpei had his chronic back injuries that flat out stopped him competing, Yamada had his mental blocks on certain obstacles like the wall and was the oldest of the group.

And on top of that, most or all of the All-Stars were/are heavy smokers etc... that would definitely affect fitness eventually.

So my question is, what would happen if these blocks never existed? If Shingo's shoulder was fine? If Yamada was fully confident and five years younger? If Bunpei stayed as physically healthy as he was in his hayday? What would change?

[PsychoDelusion]

Yamada had more problems than mental blocks to be fair. First of all he was terribly slow for the 1st Stage and that only got worse with age. His inability to understand that in order to get to Stage 3, first you need to reach it, was his downfall. He has no excuse for his failures, especially in the warped wall since he's a tall guy. If he downsized a little bit and focused on his stamina and agility instead of running with weights on the mountains like a pillock, he'd have a better SASUKE career.

If Akiyama wasn't hampered by his condition, I think he'd best joint-best or at least close to Nagano. He wasn't slow and he didn't lack the agility and stamina to get far + he was a ridiculously good rope climber. I'll go as far to say that he could achieve a 2nd Kanzenseiha if it wasn't for his eye condition. Tons of potential lost because of this

Bunpei is a special case. I think that the fact that he started at a later age than the others is what affected him the most in the ever progressing course of SASUKE. I think that we saw his peak performances late in the pre-Shin SASUKE era and after that it was only natural that he would slow down.

Shingo definitely had and still has potential but I honestly think that his mental game was always very weak. His head has been his own worst enemy and no shoulder condition affected that. You could argue that we missed a chance at a true possible attempt at the Final Stage in SASUKE 7 but in the end I reckon that he was never as naturally gifted as Nagano or Akiyama (minus his condition were). He was that pupil that studied hard to be as good as the others but in the end he could only go too far.

Takeda in the end belongs in the "mental block" category. I believe that he could get to that Final Stage multiple times, but deep inside him I reckon that he never thought he could do it. His lack of confidence in Stage 3 really affected him especially as the tournaments winded down and he had more of a leading part with Nagano's failures. If only he believed in himself more, I think he could have achieved Kanzenseiha once. (Don't compare the cocky Takeda we see at the 1st Stage to the Takeda we see at the latter ones. They are 2 different people).

Nagano in the end, had no real weaknesses minus age and declining appetite to win. I couldn't ask a lot more from him, minus his awful SASUKE 24 tournament.

[wrestlingfan55]

Bunpei would have done very well in tournaments 18-24 without his injury (or injuries), possibly a Stage 4 attempt at some point.

Akiyama wouldn't have made so many errors in Stage 1, and he very well could have completed the course again. He was ahead of his time, and better eyesight would have made a huge difference.

Shingo probably had/has the best cardio of the six men, but he never boasted great upper body strength so it's impossible to imagine him scaling the tower on time.