How awesome would Chono have been

[Guest Dangerous A]

One of my favorites of all time is Masahiro Chono. I know he suffered a serious neck injury around 92 or so. Now I have only seen Chono from 93 til current. I have been told that Chono was fucking sick back in the day. I think at points when he works smart he is sick right now. But I ask how awesome would Chono have been had it not been for the neck injury? Would he have had better than a shitty 2 month or whatever IWGP title reign? Would he have been on par with Mutoh and Hashimoto as far as how great those 2 were with their respective title reigns?

[Guest PlatypusFool]

I've never seen a Chono match, but I'm pretty much already a mark for him just because of his general look. He pulls the 'disgruntled veteran' look so well. Whoever has the signature with a banner of him in helped as well, mostly cos of the words attached to it... 'Chono is justice, Chono is rule' - best catchphrase EVER!

 

Sorry to get off topic though...

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Well, I've never seen pre-neck-injury Chono work, but he was said to be one of the best pure-workers of the time when he was at his peak. The Chono of now is just so charismatic that I think if you added that kind of pure work-rate you'd get one of the all time greats, because it would virtually be the best of both worlds. Oh well, the tragedy of what could have been aside, the current Chono still brings joy to my face because of his WOMP ASS theme and awesome charisma, so that's enough for me.

[Guest Black Tiger]

The little bit of pre-injury Chono I've seen is very good. He was very crisp in his strikes and movements. If he hadn't hurt his neck he's probably be much like Kenta Kobashi is now, broken down from the bumps and such over the years.

[Guest Jubuki]

I'm not sure where you came up with Chono being one of the 'best pure workers', but that's not exactly the case.  Even had he been as good as Mutoh or Hash, he still would have been a long way from the Big 3 of AJ, as well as Taue when he was really going in 95 & 96.  And had he been healthy, I'm not sure he would have been as good as Hash or Mutoh.  If nothing else, he would have been a very good third option for IWGP reigns, in place of Fujinami or Sasaki when they had theirs going in 96 & 97.