10 Wrestlers That NOBODY Hated
5. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Of all the huge New Japan stars of the resurgence era, Hiroshi Tanahashi was unimpeachable.
Shinsuke Nakamura was also too good to draw good faith criticism throughout the early-to-mid 2010s, but he dented his legacy with his apathetic WWE run. Tetsuya Naito upsets the safety police and while some enjoy this ironically, he is guilty of phoning it in on occasion. Kazuchika Okada is wonderful at crafting very, very long main events, in which the unsolvable puzzle is unparalleled at generating support on behalf of his opponents, but he draws backlash for going long for the sake of it on occasion.
Tanahashi cannot be criticised in good faith. He is a flawless pro wrestler, the absolute master at knowing when to do something. The man executes a dragon screw leg whip in virtually every match. You never see it coming and yet he always does it when it makes the most sense, when the fans are absolutely convinced that he's out of the fight.
He thinks deeply about his craft with a super-disciplined approach, only busting out something as spectacular as, for example, a reverse hurricanrana, in the right context. He only blew Kenny Omega away with that after Omega had buried him for being old and safe and boring in their meta-premised Wrestle Kingdom 13 programme.
He is finished these days, which often elicits resentment - but everybody just wants him to retire happily without actively campaigning for it.