Hiroshi Tanahashi Talks Current State Of New Japan Pro Wrestling

The Ace of New Japan Pro Wrestling thinks that things are looking up for the once dying promotion.

Hiroshi Tanahashi was asked in an interview on New Japan World recently about what he believes sets NJPW from other promotions in Japan. Tanahashi’s answer might surprise you as he said made note of the importance of English language commentary and the expansion of the promotion abroad. It’s clear that Tanahashi truly believes that the Bushi Road owned promotion is the top in Japan and who can argue when they have thousands of fans come to see their shows while the other promotions such as Pro Wrestling NOAH have trouble filling up the smallest arenas.

We don’t lose out on match quality. We have great guys going up against great guys and there’s rarely a gap in levels that lets match quality down. I think English has been a hurdle. So we need to keep the English announcing thing going, like we did in Ryogoku. To an extent it transcends a language barrier, the action speaks for itself, the fans reactions speak for themselves, but we need to keep doing what we are doing and keep pushing it hard and find ways to push it hard to the audience, make sure everyone knows that we have New Japan World, that it is accessible, that the action’s great and there is English announcing too. Just be really persistent about it.

Tanahashi has delegated much of the weight he carried to the likes of Kazuchika Okada, Kenny Omega and Tetsuya Naito. The company took a big hit earlier this year, losing Kota Ibushi, Shinsuke Nakamura, Doc Gallows, AJ Styles and Karl Anderson. It goes without saying that the future looks bright for New Japan as they continue their expansion globally through New Japan World and with their ever-growing involvement with Ring of Honor here in the states.

The quoted material is courtesy of Chris Charlton, you can find the entire interview on his Twitter account http://www.twitter.com/reasonjp