7 Times Wrestlers Recovered From A Burial

It’s funny to say now that there was a time when Tetsuya Naito wasn’t popular with the crowd, but in 2014, he was nothing more than a bland babyface who just couldn’t connect. Although he had the in-ring prowess, New Japan’s ‘Ace’ Hiroshi Tanahashi attracted all the crowd’s adulation. So what did Naito have to do in order to win over the crowd?

Ironically, turn heel.

Following the 2014 G1 Climax, fans were indifferent to the idea of Naito and Kazuchika Okada headlining the Tokyo Dome, and were very open about it. Thus, New Japan held a first ever “fan vote” to determine who would main event Wrestle Kingdom 8. Unfortunately for Naito and Okada, fans preferred to see Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura’s match in the prime spot. Naito ended up losing to Okada in a subpar match that did nothing to reflect their abilities.

The fact that their match position was decided by fan vote showed the lack of faith that New Japan had in Naito as a main event talent, and the fact that it lost the vote proved that the antipathy he was receiving from the fans should have been taken seriously. To be on the receiving end of this much hostility must have been a nightmare for Tetsuya, and he'd be blameless if he had just relegated himself to the midcard.

Rather than cry over spilled milk however, Naito went on a brief excursion to Mexico, and upon returning had managed to steal the hearts of fans all around the world (well, not Osaka) with his newfound badassery, even winning the IWGP heavyweight championship in April 2016.

Sure, it could be argued that Naito’s story should have been capped off with a win over Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 12, but we can’t ignore how he strived to reach that level.