If you're going to start anywhere when it comes to an overview of the talent on display in New Japan, where better than the Once in a Century Talent? Hiroshi Tanahashi has been on top of the New Japan world since winning his first IWGP Heavyweight Championship in 2006. Tanahashi is often described as New Japan's John Cena, and this is both a fair and harsh assessment. The main reason for it is the fact that, for the last forever, Tanahashi has invariably ended up on top. He has held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on seven occasions, a record, as well as holding the belt for the longest combined time of any champion. Still, there is a whole lot more to Tanahashi than favourable booking. The man has put on some of the most incredible matches of the last 10 years against a variety of opponents, most recently against Kazuchika Okada in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 10. When New Japan was in something of a creative hole seven or eight years ago, it was Tanahashi keeping the ship afloat. His charisma is also off the charts, with his post-match air guitar celebrations being the thing of legend. The Ace of the Universe (although maybe not anymore) uses the High Fly Flow (a frog splash) as his finisher, although in this case he can hit it from absolutely anywhere in any position.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
