I found a greater interest in Sanada after watching a 10 hour analysis on the video game Immortality, a game about immortal beings who hop into different human bodies to experience the world. And when I was done with that, I realized that this kind of thing also exists a little bit in Sanada, how he carries the same stoic front all the time, but his story is told through the sheer contrast of the roles he's been in and now he/creative translates it visually, mainly through costume. It's not that he has no personality, it's that it shines under a different lens. (note, I am talking about the character, in kayfabe, I feel the need to put this here)
I think 3 things can be gathered about Sanada: he meets the desire to change with an extreme response (complete overhaul), these changes happen on a whim, and he is very much a guy driven to the dark side by the expectations put on him.
When he joined J5G, he adapted a very clean cut look because he was going to be THE top champion in a month. A massive change in his position was coming, and Sanada met that with changes of his own. And in the end, that paid off. He won the cup, won the world heavyweight championship, and has the longest reign in that belt's history. Never mind the long term costs of a gamble like this.
I did not watch NJPW during his reign, but the first match of Sanada's I ever watched was VS Jack Perry. I do think more could have been done, absolutely. But the dynamic that existed in hindsight was interesting. Sanada reached the peak of his career by shaking up his very foundations, and Jack was struggling because he was still rigid in his own morals and it made him stagnate. They both inevitably reach the point of overhaul after months of failure, but the difference is Jack resisted until he just snapped and caved, while Sanada is willing to throw everything out for a newer, exciting path. The match itself is eh, but it's the match that, with context, really illustrates Sanada's character by juxtaposing it with someone who experiences a similar fate.
When comparing this to the more avant garde look he takes on when he joins Bullet Club/HOT, I thought it was a faction thing. But then why would Sanada keep his presentation while switching to HOT? Because it's an expectation thing. He failed to reach any semblance of the glory he had after losing that belt to Tetsuya, and constantly being compared to your peak has to be draining. Translations say he didn't see any more success being in J5G and that he got bored, but that backstage clip at Power Struggle paints a different picture to me. It looks like he's just abut to break down before Gedo sweeps in and gives him the out. And of course he takes it because it's better than the losing game of chasing your highest moments as a flawed human. I also think that plays into why he's still down this path even though he is doing even worse after the betrayal: it's just good to not have such high expectations on him anymore. He's free to express himself as wildly as he wishes, mock with abandon, cheat the game for once!
IDK, this came out of a separate blog I wrote, and I love picking through details like this because you get a more vivid picture when you observe from another lens. If you think about it, this trait of Sanada's, the will to just overhaul everything, is something that carries over in every faction he's been a part of in some form. J5G had to do it after the disbandment of Suzuki Gun. The War Dogs unified this way through a collective feeling that they were unseen and unheard. HOT regularly has members joining, willing to discard their dignity for a new outlook. Tetsuya had a complete overhaul of his character after his time in Mexico, and without him, Sanada might not be here. In this specific role where he plays both a champion and a clown to an overall effective degree. Where we get a story as uniquely crafted as this one.
by Gold-Narwhal-6129