White dudes in Japan

Hey Scott,

Your crack about Jurassic Powers is well taken, but anyone who can explain Scott Norton’s success in NJPW to me without the caveat that they could turn any stiff into a top star at that point would come as a huge surprise. I understand Japanese audiences value different qualities in wrestlers than do American audiences, but I just don’t get it with this guy. What’s the deal?

​The deal is that he looks exactly like Japanese audiences picture monster American wrestlers, so as long as he could stand there and have smaller guys bounce off him, 90% of the work was done for him already. And I mean, eventually being around the highest level of talent in the world rubbed off on him and he got better as a worker. But everyone has a type, and Norton was Japan’s type.​