Normal attacks may “win” against throws, but a more nuanced situation occurs when these two options collide in Pokkén Tournament.
Most normal attacks have a built-in property where, if the attack is grabbed during startup, they put the attacker in a brief stagger. This interrupts the attack’s startup and only rewards the attacker with frame advantage over the throw-attempting opponent. This design decision was implemented to force attackers to use specific attacks that are designed to beat throws, instead of just mashing jab to stop throws entirely. For example, Lucario’s 8X does not stop when grabs touch his startup.
That design decision may become a footnote in light of this new tech.
YouTuber Zenkuri discovered that you can guard cancel the stagger animation of your normal attack. This allows you to not only punish the throw attempt with virtually anything you want, but since you will be hitting them during their throw recovery, you’ll net a critical hit damage boost as well.
You can also cancel the stagger animation with a jump, allowing you to score instant jump attacks. Considering nearly everyone has a divekick-like move, this basically means free jump ins for the whole cast.
With this tech, grabbing may end up being a lot harder if you don’t have a proper meaty setup.
Sources: Zenkuri