YMMV / Minoru Suzuki

• Author's Saving Throw: The decision by the Pancrase management to put Suzuki in catch wrestling rules match instead of MMA ones due to his increasingly hard times against average fighters.
• Badass Decay: 1996 was the year that marked the end of his run as a top contender in Pancrase. Due to injuries and battle wear finally catching with him, he would never get a high level win again, and instead was relegated to fight in grappling-only matches and give bad performances against people he would have beaten fair just a year before.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Suzuki is a well liked wrestler, especially for his violent antics. However, those very actions are somewhat infamous to people who know that he used to do them for real to foreign talents and young fighters back in Pancrase and that he is completely unrepentant about it.
  • His performances in pro wrestling after his return in 2003 are generally liked, if not loved, but his Wrestling Psychology is more divisive, and there is a discussion about whether he is still sharp or he is now more of an entertainer than a wrestler. This perception only increases after watching his old technical matches in PWFG.
• Evil Is Cool: Suzuki is sadistic, cruel, violent and unhinged except for very few exceptions. Crowds still cheer him no matter where he wrestles.
• Harsher in Hindsight: While in AJPW, Suzuki got a liking to work over Brute Issei's shoulder during their matches, once even dislocating it with an armbar. A year later, Issei had to retire precisely due to a shoulder injury.
• Hype Backlash:
  • While it is unambiguous that he was really skilled and could have been a better contender had not been so injury prone (and had not fought in an openweight event-per-month promotion), exactly how skilled he was is a source of debate. On one hand, a lot of ex Pancrase fighters have talked endlessly about how freaking good he was on the mat, but on the other hand, many people have pointed out that his in-ring performances, even the best ones, never look anywhere as good.
  • Given that he is pretty much the most popular Japanese wrestler of The New '10s in the West, many newer fans might wonder what's so awesome with an aloof guy whose wrestling style is composed of slapping people around, doing a few basic moves and putting nasty faces. It doesn't help that many wrestling fans who don't know a lot about MMA often bill him as the father of MMA in Japan or a former MMA star, which contrasts quite badly with the reality of Suzuki being mostly a niche fighter who is more known for his losses than his wins.
• Memetic Badass: Due to his reputation as The Dreaded among NJPW's roster, fans online often describe Suzuki as a terrifying demonic figure who will kill you if you so much as glance at him wrong.
• Memetic Mutation: "KAZE NI NAREEEEEEE!"
  • The Suzuki Incident^note Before his match against Jon Moxley, AEW cut Suzuki's theme "Kaze ni Nare" for time before it got to the chorus, which is usually sung along by the crowd. Many were extremely angry it got cut as well as the short match time. But once AEW made a storyline about it, reuniting Suzuki with Suzuki-gun stablemate Lance Archer, tempers cooled down and it became a meme. is the darkest day in in professional wrestling history. AEW should be ashamed of themselves!
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Fans started to sour on Suzuki during his run with the NEVER Openweight title in 2017 as it was marred by lackluster matches and lazy booking on account of constant interference from Suzuki-gun, the latter of which was a prominent criticism during Suzuki's run at Pro Wrestling NOAH, leading fans to wonder whether Suzuki still had what it took. Then at Wrestle Kingdom 12, Suzuki faced off against Hirooki Goto in a Hair vs. Hair match that was regarded as one of the best matches of the show, on the same card featuring Omega vs. Jericho and Okada vs. Naito no less. After dropping the NEVER belt to Goto, Suzuki proceeded to reignite his old feud with Hiroshi Tanahashi for the latter's Intercontinental title and proceeded to dismantle the Ace of New Japan in another highly praised match at New Beginning in Sapporo, this time with no interference from Suzuki-gun.