Hiroshi Tanahashi Praises Karl Anderson As ‘My Type of Wrestler’

Hiroshi Tanahashi is a fan of Karl Anderson, who he’s faced in the ring many times in NJPW. The NJPW star’s latest part of his Ace’s High interview series saw him looking back at his 2010 match against Machine Gun in the 2010 G1 Climax, and he shared his respect for Anderson during the discussion.

“This was Anderson emerging somewhat,” Tanahashi said about the match. “I guess I was the litmus test for that, and Anderson passed with a win over me.”

He added, “He was my type of wrestler. Very finessed in every little thing he did, a good rhythm to his matches. And at that point he wasn’t involved in any heel faction so I had more of a chance to interact with him outside of the ring and find out what a nice easy going guy he was … When he first came into New Japan, he would be on the receiving end of these losses from me and the rest of hontai, but kept his head up and kept working. he truly became a wrestler’s wrestler. He was someone for the boys to aspire to. ‘I want to be a pro like Karl Anderson’ kinda thing.”

The most recent match that the two have had was five years ago at The New Beginning In Osaka, with Anderson teaming with Doc Gallows & Kenny Omega against Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, and Tomoaki Honma.