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This is entry number 3 in my weekly wrestler bio, this weeks wrestler is the 7 time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, 2 time IWGP Intercontinental Champion and the Ace Of New Japan Pro Wrestling Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Career summary: Hiroshi Tanahashi was born on November 13, 1976, in high school he played baseball and competed in amateur wrestling where he was successful enough to be noticed by NJPW talent scouts who invited him to try out at the New Japan dojo in February 1998 where he was accepted as a trainee the following year. After 6 months of training Tanahashi made his debut in October 1999 facing the future Togi Makabe then known as Shinya Makabe. Tanahashi was immediately pegged to be a future superstar in New Japan being given big wins over men like Scott Hall, Negro Casas and Kensuke Sasaki right out of the gate and even being dubbed part of "The New Three Musketeers"(a term coined after the group of Masahiro Chono, Shinya Hashimoto and Keiji Mutoh who were the 3 biggest stars in New Japan in the 90's referred to as The Three Musketeers) alongside fellow rookies Katsuyori Shibata and Shinsuke Nakamura. After this Tanahashi would form a tag team with Kenzo Suzuki that would end up being short lived after a real life incident where Tanahashi was stabbed by his girlfriend in what would wind up being a big moment in his career.
Tanahashi's stabbing ended up becoming headline news across Japan with the question of whether or not Tanahashi would come back being a hot talking point. After 3 months of recovery Tanahashi was announced to return against Manabu Nakanishi on February 2003 to a sold out crowd in Tokyo. From there Tanahashi would become to rise rapidly winning the IWGP U-30 Title once, the IWGP Tag Team Titles twice, made it to the finals of the 2004 G1 Climax and headlined the 2005 January 4 Tokyo Dome show against Shinsuke Nakamura. Shortly after this Tanahashi announced his intention to challenge Brock Lesnar for the IWGP Title, however Lesnar failed to show up for the match and instead Tanahashi was placed in a tournament to crown a new champion which Tanahashi would win defeating Giant Bernard in the finals.
Tanahashi would hold the belt for 9 months before losing to Yuji Nagata on April 13 2007. Tanahashi quickly rebounded by winning his first ever G1 Climax, defeating Nagata in the finals and getting a rematch set for October 8, 2007 which Tanahashi won to become a 2 time IWGP Champion. His second reign would be shortlived however as Tanahashi would lose the title to fellow New Three Musketeer Shinsuke Nakamura on January 4th 2008 in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 3.
Tanahashi rebounded by winning the New Japan Cup defeating Giant Bernard to earn a rematch against Nakamura only to lose that match as well. Tanahashi would finally win the belt for the third time a year later on January 4 2009 defeating his mentor Keiji Mutoh. After this he challenged Nakamura to a match, wanting to prove he could beat Nakamura for the title which he would do on February 15. After the match Tanahashi would declare himself the "Ace of the Universe" and challenge Kurt Angle to what was billed as an international dream match. The match took place on April 5 with Tanahashi winning after 2 High Fly Flows. One month later Tanahashi would lose the title to Manabu Nakanishi only to win it back from Nakanishi another month later.
Tanahashi was forced to vacate the title in August 2009 after fracturing his eye while competing in the G1 Climax. After returning Tanahashi would stay out of the title picture instead facing the top stars from rival promotion Pro Wrestling Noah in there interpromotional feud and trying to avenge losses from the past year to guys such as Tajiri and Toru Yano. After avenging the loss to Yano he was attacked by Yano's ally Masato Tanaka who helped Yano shave off some of Tanahashi's hair. This lead to a hair vs hair match at Dominion 6.19 where Tanahashi would win using help from Tajiri and Kushida to subdue Yano's ally Takashi Iizuka. Tanahashi would win make it to the finals of the 2010 G1 Climax only to fall to Satoshi Kojima.
Tanahashi's 2010 would end strong as he'd defeat Hirooki Goto and Tetsuya Naito in December and be granted a shot against Kojima for the IWGP Title at Wrestle Kingdom 5 in January 2011, which Tanahashi would win making him a 5 time IWGP Champion. Tanahashi would hold the title for 404 days during which he would defend the title 11 time breaking the record for number of IWGP Title defenses previously held by Yuji Nagata. Tanahashi would eventually lose the title on February 12, 2012 to Kazuchika Okada in what would be the first of many battles in a classic rivalry between the 2.
Tanahashi would get a rematch on June 16 and win it back from Okada tying the record for number of IWGP Title reigns at 6, a record previously held by his mentor Tatsumi Fujinami. Tanahashi would successfully defend the belt against Togi Makabe, Naomichi Marufuji, Minori Suzuki, Okada, Masato Tanaka, Yujiro Takahashi, and Karl Anderson before losing the belt back to Okada in April 2013 and losing a rematch which many felt meant Okada had replaced Tanahashi as the Ace Of New Japan.
However that would not be the case because 2 months after the defeat to Okada Tanahashi decided to challenge after IWGP Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura to a match at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in January 2014. This match ended up overshadowing Okada's IWGP Title defense against Tetsuya Naito and ended up replacing Okada/Naito as the main event, this event sent the message that while Okada may be the IWGP Champion he still isn't on the level of Hiroshi Tanahashi. Tanahashi would go on to defeat Nakamura in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 8 only to lose it back to Nakamura in April 2014 at Invasion Attack 2014.
After this loss Tanahashi would take time off from singles competition and form a short lived team called "Ace To King" with Togi Makabe which dissolved afterwards so both men could prepare for the 2014 G1 Climax tournament. While Tanahashi would not advance to the finals he would however get a win on the final day of the tournament over then IWGP Champion AJ Styles, thus earning a title shot against AJ which Tanahashi would win to become a 7 time IWGP Champion thus breaking the record for most IWGP Title reigns ever. After this win Okada (who had won the G1 Climax and earned a title shot at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th) set out to defeat Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom in an attempt to prove he is the new star of NJPW only to lose to Tanahashi further solidifying Tanahashi as the Ace of NJPW.
Tanahashi would lose the title back to AJ Styles and have a short feud with Toru Yana leading to the G1 Climax 2015 where Tanahashi would win it for the second time defeating Shinsuke Nakamura in the finals to earn the right to challenge Okada (who had beaten AJ at Dominion 2015) for the IWGP Title at Wrestle Kingdom 10. Okada would go on to finally beat Tanahashi thus officially ending Tanahashi's reign as the Ace Of New Japan and passing the torch to Okada.
Tanahashi would then set his sights on the IWGP Intercontinental Title losing to Kenny Omega, and then losing to Tetsuya Naito until he finally defeated Naito in a rematch at Dominion 6.11. During this time Tanahashi would also win the Never Openweight 6 Man Tag Titles 3 times first with Yoshitatsu and Michael Elgin defeating Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks only to lose them back to them one month later, then he teamed with Manabu Nakanishi and Ryusuke Taguchi to win them for a second time defeating Bushi, Evil and Sanada of Los Ingobernables De Japon only to lose them back to LIJ 1 month later and finally Tanahashi and Taguchi replaced Nakanishi with Ricochet to win them and then lose them back to LIJ again.
Tanahashi would then spend the rest of 2017 defending the IWGP Intercontinental Title against the likes of Kota Ibushi and Zack Sabre Jr. After the defense against Ibushi Tanahashi would be attacked by Switchblade Jay White who would then challenge Tanahashi to a match at Wrestle Kingdom 12 only for Tanahashi to retain. Tanahashi would finally lose the Intercontinental title to Minoru Suzuki at New Beginning in Sapporo 2018. That is Tanahashi's career so far
My thoughts: Tanahashi is a man who has earned everything he has gotten he was a big part in keeping NJPW from going under in the early 2000's and helping it become successful again. Not only that but Tanahashi is one of the best wrestlers of the 21st Century if not of all time and while his career may have peaked he is still a man who's guaranteed to give you your money's worth every time he's in a match
If you know who Tanahashi is regardless of whether you like him or not feel free to comment your feelings on him
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