During the latest edition of NJPW’s “Aces High” series, Hiroshi Tanahashi commented on working a match with the Steiner Brothers in 2002 in NJPW while he was injured with a torn ACL. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On Masahiro Chono taking a position atop NJPW in 2002: “I think from wherever you looked, it was a complete mess in the company at that point. Chono was sacrificing himself, being in that spot … I mean just look at where he was physically. His neck was in a bad, bad way, and he still put himself in that spot to wrestle Kenta Kobashi in the main event of the Tokyo Dome, to try and move tickets.”
On his match with Kensuke Sasaki against the Steiner Brothers: “Ah, that was the highest position I’d been on a stage like that in my career to that point, but man, that match was hell! I’d actually torn my ACL two weeks before. I should have been out for two months, but I had it patched up … It got worse. The older brother, Rick, just threw me on my head with all these German suplexes, I was scared for my life. The pressure about being in the semi main event were one thing, but I was more worried about my body holding together.”
On Riki Choshu leaving NJPW soon after that point: “Hmm, I didn’t think all that much of it to be completely honest. This all led to him starting W-J, didn’t it? It felt like the rest of us would have a chance to move up, like when the high school seniors graduate and the sophomores get the run of the school.”
