Who would sweep the mat with the rest of the cast members in a real-life Cobra Kai tournament?
As the same fighters seem to wind up in the final match each season, and the show has shown us a clear hierarchy of who’s on top and who’s just there to lose an early-round match, it seems almost obvious who the key members of the show would pick.
Then, just like the show, they go and throw a major curveball and toss us all off track.
When speaking about the upcoming fifth season in an interview with ComicBook, the two stars who started it all gave a stunning, shocking answer to just who would win the real-life tournament between all the cast members of the show.
“Stingray,” answered William Zabka, who plays Johnny Lawrence.
That’s right, Stingray, played by Paul Walter Houser. The very same guy who hides in the woods to win one challenge earlier in the show, gets disgraced, acts like a child, throws the kids a party, and eventually turns total heel and lets himself get absolutely pummeled to a pulp by Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) in order to set up John Kreese (Martin Kove) and get him arrested.
Surely, it’s just Zabka though, right? Not so.
“Stingray all the way. He evolves and gets better every season,” Ralph Macchio, who plays Daniel LaRusso, chimed in.
Luckily, the younger members of the show had a bit more level-headedness in the matter and made sure to give a more legit answer to the question.
Tanner Buchanan, who plays Johnny’s son, Robby Lawrence, was actually picked to win the real-life tournament. He’s been near or at the top nearly every season, and he seems to have the moves and the physique to probably outgun the rest of them.
The heart of the show, Xolo Maridueña (who plays Miguel Diaz) also nabbed some votes to be a contender for the real-life crown, as did the man who plays Eli Moskowitz, aka Hawk, Jacob Bertrand.
Apparently, the question of who would win the women’s side of the fight didn’t come up in the interview, but one contender, Mary Mouser (who plays Samantha LaRusso), did say that she’d throw her hat in the corner of Buchanan or Bertrand.
“I would vote Tanner or Jacob,” she said.
Who would be your pick to win the whole thing if the cast went head-to-head in real life?
We’re just days away, as the fifth season of Cobra Kai will hit Netflix on Sep. 9.