10 Wrestlers Who Can HONESTLY Be Labelled A Genius
2. Hiroshi Tanahashi
The best move in pro wrestling isn't a convoluted aerial, or a deadly drop to the head: it's Hiroshi Tanahashi's dragon screw leg whip.
It proves, definitively, that wrestling isn't about moves, and how judging a wrestler based on how many moves they use is a fallacy. Tanahashi uses it multiple times per match, but never to excess, and you never see it coming. It's the perfect wrestling move because it's unpredictable and yet perfect in its logic. It always means something; it builds to his finishing sequence and shifts the back-and-forth momentum seamlessly.
Wrestling also isn't about moves because Tanahashi's genius is in his mastery of the space between them.
In the wake of Mitsuharu Misawa's tragic death in 2009, an institute helmed by NJPW legend Hiroshi Hase (and representatives of every major Japanese company) implemented safeguards to drive the industry away from danger. This forced the talent to work more intelligently, and Tanahashi prospered under this reversion to old values. He prospered to such an extent that his company has grown, year-on-year, for a full decade.
Tanahashi's trademark finishing sequence is ingenious. It's a desperate attempt to strike and counter the finish, and in fighting out of the move so ferociously, the move means so much more because it is sold as so much more.