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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–So last time we spoke a lot about Shinya Hashimoto. He had a big influence on you, correct?

Tanahashi: Oh, huge! It goes back to seeing shows in Gifu, and just the kind of special reaction that he got in his hometown. It was massive. 

–I know he took a shine to you. Did he treat you in your Young Lion days?

Tanahashi: Oh yeah. He would just boom ‘Hey Tana, let’s go eat!’. He had such a big heart, and he loved going out for walks with the young wrestlers and with the staff, too. He would have his assistant, Kenzo (Suzuki) hold his wallet, and every now and then he’d tell him, ‘hey, buy that!’

–Like a mob boss!

Tanahashi: I remember one time in Ryogoku as well, there were about 20 of these energy drink things left over for the boys, so Hashimoto barks to us ‘don’t let these go to waste! Drink ’em all now!’. So I remember chugging these things down, thinking this is what it is to be a pro-wrestler (laughs).

–All those energy drinks!

Tanahashi: I didn’t sleep a wink that night (laughs).

–There are a lot of stories about how Hashimoto enjoyed his ribs, and he was pretty harsh to Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Osamu Nishimura. Were you on the bad end of his ribbing ever?

Tanahashi: Ah, you know, I never was. I think he was starting to withdraw from his ribbing days by the time I was coming up (laughs). 

–So when Hashimoto left NJPW, your other senpai, Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa left with him. 

Tanahashi: Otani treated me pretty well, too. The real story behind him leaving, of course, that was more complicated than just following Hashimoto…

–There were rumours that he clashed a lot with Riki Choshu. Choshu was in the office at this point in time. 

Tanahashi: I think we can talk about this now enough time’s passed. There was a show in Kanagawa one time where Choshu and Otani were really getting into it. Just yelling at one another, and Otani ended up yelling ‘I’m outta here!’ and storming off. That was uncomfortable. 

–Where did that all come from?

Tanahashi: This was all right around the Best of the Super Juniors in 2000. Otani took a lot of pride in what he was doing in the junior heavyweight division, but all the focus was on Riki Choshu and whether he would make a comeback against Atsushi Onita. Choshu wasn’t active at the time, but Otani felt he was getting all the focus, above the junior heavyweights. Otani hated losing out. But they made up a few days after that fight.

–We touched on this last time, but in April 2001, after seven months dealing with a hand injury, you returned to action having graduated from the Young Lion gear to your red tights look. How did that process go, as far as your senpai were concerned?

Tanahashi: Maybe there were some mumblings, but I didn’t notice any real reaction. In the early part of the 90s, a lot of Young Lions used to experiment with green or purple gear as well, mind. But in my case, I had really decided on my own I’d graduated.

–You gave yourself a passing grade!

Tanahashi: All casual, like.

–Drawing attention to yourself but not at the same time?

Tanahashi: Kind of. Like I would steadily grow out my hair, so I was changing my image, and I would steadily introduce more moves into my offense, bit by bit. If I saw so myself, I was pretty smart about it.

–Your half hatch suplex would get a lot of praise at the time.

Tanahashi: Recently, YOH uses it from time to time. It comes from a front chancerie, so you would see guys like Akira Maeda and the original Tiger Mask use it back in the day.

–Did a senpai recommend it to you?

Tanahashi: No, I found it by myself. It worked because it isn’t too big or too showy, but at the same time, nobody else was doing it.

–More ambitious was the Sky Twister Press you attempted…

Tanahashi: I gave it a shot two or three times. Never hit it though!

–Even to try it at your size was something. Chaparrita ASARI was famous for it, but she was much shorter.

Tanahashi: When I was a student, and we went down to the beach, I’d do dives where I practiced moves like that. It’s not too dissimilar to Naito’s Stardust Press. Mind you, I’d have no chance of doing that now. My knees…

–Only for the younger wrestlers.

Tanahashi: And it comes down to whether a move suits a certain guy, I think. Those times I tried it, it was already tough, and I just felt it wasn’t for me.