Hiroshi Tanahashi’s life story can now be told in this series of autobiographical interviews, available for the first time in English!
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–As we keep looking at your 2012, let’s move on to Ryogoku and Summer Night Fever, a special event that celebrated 40 years of AJPW and NJPW. You defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Togi Makabe, in a match that moved former NJPW star and current politician Hiroshi Hase to blog about you. You rebuked his comments in your own official blog.
Tanahashi: He wrote that I was all moves, and I said he was way off base.
–You wrote ‘I understand that especially as the champion, I’m open to a lot of criticism. But criticism like this only does a disservice to the fans that show up to cheer and boo at the matches.’
Tanahashi: The company had just recently been bought by Bushiroad, and I was changing my mindset to be more internationally minded. Then you had Makabe, who was just starting to get into his celebrity status and making mainstream TV appearances. He was my debut opponent, and at the same time it was a key match to herald in a new era as well. I don’t have a single regret about the match itself.
–It wasn’t just Hase at the time, but a few retired wrestlers who were finding fault with the modern scene.
Tanahashi: Right. It wasn’t like they were watching everything we were doing, they were dropping in and finding things to criticise. I really hated that. It definitely set a bad example I didn’t want to follow as I got older.
–You paid homage to Hase in your ‘college pro’ days though, and you’re quite the fan, I gather?
Tanahashi: I always liked him. I was a big fan of the fighting spirit he showed in the face of Inoki and Hashimoto, and he worked really hard to compete against the Three Musketeers. I never thought I would grow up to be a wrestler he would be calling out in some blog (laughs).
–Later, Hase walked back those comments a little, and said that the two of you together could have done a lot. How do you feel about the whole situation a decade later?
Tanahashi: Hiroshi Tanahashi holds his grudges, brother (laughs). But I always believe that people’s opinions and their human nature are somewhat separate. I’m not one to hate someone just because of their take on something. It’s important to take people’s opinions as opinions and find the good parts of their personality, go from there. that was something a friend of mine taught me once when I was in university and I’ve carried that with me all my life- it’s an important skill in society I feel. I know for one thing that Hase was always a good senior and looked after the people below him.
–He scouted a lot of great amateur prospects and introduced them to the pro ranks, and has been very active in politics, for the ministry of sports and education and now as the governor of Ishikawa prefecture.
Tanahashi: You have to respect his achievements. he did a lot for all the wrestling companies when events were completely cancelled at the start of the COVID pandemic. I’m actually giving a speech in Ishikawa for him before the local elections.
–So you’ve moved on from this 2012 Ryogoku incident then?
Tanahashi: I’d say so, haha. We haven’t brought up this match though, so maybe he’s still sore about me as a pro-wrestler.
–Also on that Ryogoku card, Shinsuke Nakamura and Kazuchika Okada took on Suwama and Shuji Kondo in what was a really brutal match with Okada prevailing.
Tanahashi: Okada really brought it in that one. The AJPW boys really tried to assert themselves, but Okada was able to push them aside. Okada was still only in his early 20s at this point, but he was someone the company could really count on.
–Your next defence was in Yamagata against ZERO-ONE representative Masato Tanaka.
Tanahashi: I really headed into this one with a lot of respect for Tanaka as a wrestler. His physical conditioning really was and is something else as well.
–How did you feel about the match itself?
Tanahashi: He gave me a Sliding D to the back of the head in the last part of the match that left me loopy. He went to follow up with one from the front as well, and I was somehow able to get out of that situation all while I was just barely conscious. The other thing I remember about that night was that we had transitioned from the Yamagata Gym number two to the main arena there, and the place was pretty packed.
–A 3500 sell out. It was the first time the IWGP title had been defended in Yamagata, so there was quite a lot of local attention.
Tanahashi: That was important to me, to not just defend in the major cities but out in the country side as well. I’m really grateful to have been able to do that.
