Hiroshi Tanahashi Remembers Match With Shelton Benjamin In 2012 G1

In an interview with NJPW1972.com, Hiroshi Tanahashi spoke about wrestling Shelton Benjamin in the NJPW G1 Climax tournament back in 2012. Tanahashi would end up winning that match but finished second in his block that year. Benjamin was third. Here are highlights:

On Naomichi Marufuji: “We’re about the same age, so I always had him in the back of my mind. They always called him a genius- I was the ‘genius of the sun’ for a brief time, but when I saw Marufuji’s matches it was clear he deserved the ‘genius’ label more than me. It was really a poise thing with him. Whether on offense or if he’s bumping around, there’s no wasted motion. He had a clear idea of the kind of wrestling that he wanted to do, and was able to enjoy himself doing it. And even though he was a smaller guy, he crafted his offense around that so you didn’t notice a big difference in size with him and his opponents.”

On wrestling Shelton Benjamin: “I’d known of Benjamin since his Team Angle days in WWE, but it really struck me wrestling him how he was actually the biggest guy of that group. So put together, especially those shoulders of his. And just an incredible pure athlete.”

On being one of the few Japanese wrestlers to wrestle all of Team Angle one-on-one: “That’s a good point. Man, I’m special- at least to a very specific demographic of wresting fans (laughs). Benjamin is the very model of something I’ve spoken about before- I feel so jealous of guys that have such unbelievable athletic DNA, just blessed to have incredible athletic ability, like Okada as well. But then again, it’s probably my shortcomings that made me a success. I could never fly around, but I had to focus my efforts on developing from a psychological perspective instead.”