10 Wrestlers Who Will Change The Business Over The Next 10 Years
5. Hiroshi Tanahashi
In a century marked by incredible, unparalleled talent, Hiroshi Tanahashi is in the top three, at least.
That praise might extend beyond any metric of time. He is phenomenal. This is a man capable of searing drama with the precision timing of the humble dragon screw. If it's more when-to-do, and not what-to-do, Tanahashi is the GOAT.
Tanahashi also turns 45 this year. He's still incredible at his craft - so great, in fact, that he uses his physical decline as a storyline driver to inform the great pathos of his old lion persona - but his days as the Ace are all but over, even if he has one last sentimental run in him that nobody would begrudge.
If all of this seems to contradict the title, it's because Tanahashi's influence will prove more indirect.
At Wrestle Kingdom 12, Tanahashi worked Jay White. The match, while still very good, was something of a let-down by Dome standards. But the lessons imparted to White didn't take long to take root; White now is almost Tana's heel equivalent. He expresses this overtly, with his cruel adoption of the dragon screw, but White, too, works best in the spaces between. Tanahashi Vs. The Great O'Khan from this year's Dome spectacular over-delivered, in contrast. O'Khan got over as a different style of worker, and he too will benefit greatly from Tana's curriculum.
Tanahashi's in-ring DNA will shape New Japan over the next ten years, just as his work defined the preceding decade.