  We consider the particle spectrum and event shapes in large N gauge theories
in different regimes of the short-distance 't Hooft coupling, lambda. The
mesons in the small lambda limit should have a Regge spectrum in order to agree
with perturbation theory, while generically the large lambda theories with
gravity duals produce spectra reminiscent of KK modes. We argue that these
KK-like states are qualitatively different from QCD modes: they are deeply
bound states which are sensitive to short distance interactions rather than the
flux tube-like states expected in asymptotically free, confining gauge
theories. In addition, we also find that the characteristic event shapes for
the large lambda theories with gravity duals are close to spherical, very
different from QCD-like (small lambda, small N) and Nambu-Goto-like (small
lambda, large N) theories which have jets. This observation is in agreement
with the conjecture of Strassler on event shapes in large 't Hooft coupling
theories, which was recently proved by Hofman and Maldacena for the conformal
case. This conclusion does not change even when considering soft-wall
backgrounds in the gravity dual. The picture that emerges is the following:
theories with small and large lambda are qualitatively different, while
theories with small and large N are qualitatively similar. Thus it seems that
it is the relative smallness of the 't Hooft coupling in QCD that prevents a
reliable AdS/QCD correspondence from emerging, and that reproducing
characteristic QCD-like behavior will require genuine stringy dynamics to be
incorporated into any putative dual theory.
