10 Articles You Won't Believe WWE.com Once Posted!

There is a mutual respect between WWE and Japanese professional wrestling, with legendary wrestler Antonio Inoki being inducted into their Hall of Fame class in 2010 and even sending main event level talent over to compete like The Undertaker for Michinoku Pro Wrestling in the ‘90s. This is largely due to WWE not considering Japanese professional wrestling as outright competition the same way their North American counterparts like the NWA and WCW were.

WWE toured Japan in the noughties for a run of shows and on WWE.com they posted backstage pictures from the events. Memorable photos were taken of a visiting Hiroshi Tanahashi with Triple H and Shawn Michaels, as well as Ric Flair with Yuji Nagata and Tiger Hattori (with a babyfaced Finn Bálor cameoing in the background). One photo that stuck out above the rest though was Tanahashi with Jeff Hardy which WWE.com hilariously and mistakenly captioned "Jeff Hardy branches out with Japanese fan". That ‘fan’ was making a name for himself as one of the best wrestlers in the world at that point in time and would later become a record setting eight-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion.

If Tanahashi ever ends up going to WWE you wonder if WWE.com will announce it as ‘Lifelong Fan signs with WWE’.