Hotseat: Hiroshi Tanahashi

IN AUGUST 2021, New Japan Pro-Wrestling held its first large-scale event in the United States since the start of the global pandemic in March 2020, presenting NJPW Resurgence at the L.A. Torch. The show’s main event featured the long-awaited return of Hiroshi Tanahashi to the U.S. in a clash with AEW’s Lance Archer for the IWGP United States championship. The “Once In A Century Talent” would return to Japan as the first Japanese wrestler to shoulder this championship, and, in the process, become a grand slam champion.

Currently, NJPW is in the midst of its 50th anniversary year—with many special shows and rare crossover events—and showing no signs of slowing down in the near future. With over 20 years of in-ring experience, Tanahashi has climbed his way to the company’s top with deeply emotional storytelling, weathering the constantly changing wrestling climate in Japan at the helm of NJPW’s ship, alongside other company mainstays like Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito. Outside of the ring, he works equally as hard, with myriad projects including a