10 Times Wrestlers Busted Out Moves You'd NEVER Expect

2. Hiroshi Tanahashi Busts Out A Poison 'Rana

NJPW The New Beginning In Niigata Kenny Omega Hiroshi Tanahashi Poison Rana
NJPW

Hiroshi Tanahashi is a genius and one of the greatest wrestlers and workers of all time.

There's a distinction between the two. Tanahashi did and does actively dislike the most brutal form of strong style and resented Katsuyori Shibata for both exhuming it in New Japan Pro Wrestling and returning to a promotion he had abandoned. This informed an incredible philosophical war at Destruction in Kobe 2014 - and sparked within Tanahashi a grasp of a new, compelling meta narrative.

He played the role of a sanctimonious curmudgeon when working his IWGP Heavyweight Title programme against Kenny Omega, whose style he described as shallow and back-loaded with exciting moves to create the hollow illusion of an epic. Much of this was expressed disapprovingly in the media in a programme lacking - by astute design - in traditional heat angles. It was a hit, selling out the Tokyo Dome legitimately for the first time in 19 years, and to put the story and his opponent over, the purist executed an atypically risky move. He dropped Omega on his head with a poison 'rana to tell the story that wrestling must evolve.

This is where the worker bit comes in; Tana used the Shibata match to legitimise the Omega match, and, in one of his Ace's High columns on the official NJPW website, revealed that he actually resents the attitude he pretended to hold.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!