YMMV / Naoya Ogawa

• Americans Hate Tingle: Ironically like Hashimoto himself, Ogawa never took off in United States. Without mentioning the most controversial points of his career, his tenure in NJPW was brief and divisive, meaning he didn't benefit of the promotion's later popularity in the west, and most of his wrestling career took instead place in ZERO-ONE and HUSTLE, two promotions that never were exactly hot in the States. His mixed martial arts career would not help either, as his pro wrestling background, unimpressive performances, and accusations of fixed fights (not to mention the fact that he fought very sparsely, impeding him from forming a following) made him exactly the opposite of what western MMA fans liked to see.
• Badass Decay: Like many shoot-style stars of The '90s, Ogawa is an example of a wrestler who went from drawing crowds by the five digits to working sporadic matches in minor promotions before being entirely forgotten by the IWC.
• Base-Breaking Character: The only points in which the IWC is unanimous about Ogawa are that he had an incredible charisma, that his matches with Hashimoto are legend stuff, and that he should have been booked (and trained) much better. Barring that, the community seems unable to decide whether Ogawa was otherwise a terrible one-note attraction from the Inoki era, an average to good wrestler, or an underrated worker that could pull off great matches with even the most lacking opponents (as well as, depending on how they view him, a horrible person who deserves to die, a worker with a troublesome but forgivable personality, or a person who was given a bad hand before redeeming and whose role in holding together ZERO-ONE and HUSTLE shouldn't be overlooked).
• Broken Base:
  • How much of the 1.4 Incident was worked and how much shoot, and how much fault had Ogawa on it, are themes of debate among fans.
  • Pretty much every match he has fought in MMA has been accused and discussed of being a work, whether there is some solid proof or not.
• Critical Backlash: About his in-ring performance. Judging for some Western forum pundits, one could think Ogawa is one of the worst workers ever and an unsung WrestleCrap inductee.
• Evil Is Cool: Started as this in NJPW with his bad boy persona, although it soon devolved into The Scrappy when people saw it wasn't entirely just gimmick and it was harming the careers of better liked wrestlers.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: An incredibly immediate example. Naoya was accused of fighting a worked match when he beat Stefan Leko, basing on the counterintuitive fact that Ogawa the grappler happened to knock out Leko the kickboxer with a punch. But then, at the same event and right after their match, Kevin Randleman came and knocked out Mirko Cro Cop with a punch to pull an even more extreme upset.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • His "3, 2, 1, HUSTLE, HUSTLE!" pelvic thrusts were everywhere in Japan around the time he did them in HUSTLE.
  • His "I'm Chicken!" also became a meme.
• Mis-blamed:
  • Many people hate Ogawa for ending Shinya Hashimoto's career in NJPW and making him left the company, but few seem to realize that the main brunt of Hashimoto's departure actually belonged to the bookers, in this case Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami, who had already been misusing Hashimoto even before Ogawa showed up. Ogawa wasn't even a personal factor in Hashimoto's decision; Shinya had been already considering to leave New Japan due to disagreements with the management, and Inoki's insistence in not giving him a fair feud against Ogawa was just the last straw for him.
  • A downplayed example is the 1.4 Incident, as people point out that Ogawa was a horrible person for not refusing to commit a shoot on Inoki's orders. While they are right in that Ogawa came and shot on Hashimoto, it is also necessary to ponder how much you could get away with after desobeying a direct order from the chairman of the biggest company in the puroresu business, who also happens to have connections with several other companies which could be interested on signing you up. It doesn't make Ogawa's choice morally correct, but it makes it understandable to a point. Hashimoto likely was aware of this, as they would become friends when they started working together in ZERO-ONE.
  • Ogawa is also credited with ruining his 2002 match with Kensuke Sasaki, which ended in a no contest due to repeated brawling by their respective cornermen, Manabu Nakanishi and Kazunari Murakami. However, assuming that it was not a Worked Shoot, it is very clear that it wasn't Naoya who disrupted the match, but Nakanishi and Murakami, who rushed to the ring seemingly believing each was going to attack the other. If anything, Ogawa seemed to be the only person in the arena trying to keep the match running.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Many wrestling fans are not willing to forget that Ogawa destroyed Shinya Hashimoto's career in NJPW, or most specifically that he shot on him at the 1.4 Incident.
  • A world judo champion and pro wrestling powerhouse being pinned by a woman who isn't even a wrestler was seen as a disgrace in Japan and an insult to both disciplines, even if it was a scripted thing in an openly parodic/camp medium. (Yeah, Japanese are that susceptible.)
  • Even although Gary Goodridge denied having thrown the fight against Ogawa, his statement that he was offered money to do such gave a strong argument to those who believe Ogawa fought worked fights in PRIDE. It came to the point that even Stefan Leko, who carried a spinal injury and had been clearly handpicked to give Ogawa an easy fight, was believed to have fought a worked match against him, as if Ogawa needed any more advantage.
  • Getting beaten by Fedor Emelianenko in 0:54 after not touching gloves is badly remembered today in American MMA circles, even for a Fedor victim after all, as people expected him to last much more for being a judo legend.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Ogawa was popular in his first appearances in NJPW, but after some time he became such an annoying and undeservedly pushed character that people used to get up from their seats and exit the arena out of X-Pac Heat for him. It only became worse when he caused the departure of a beloved main eventer and then engaged in picky politicking in a promotion whose members didn't like him or his master Inoki anymore. However, after Ogawa left NJPW and joined Hashimoto in ZERO-ONE, his improved in-ring work and newfound anti-heroic character managed to convince people that there was really a wrestler under his spoiled judo star persona. It showed when he started working in PRIDE and HUSTLE, where crowds were deafeningly after him (even when his performance wasn't the best) and often gave him the biggest pop of the night despite sharing card with MMA legends and other big names.