–While you were GHC Tag Champion, the homegrown NOAH talent obviously were resistant to the idea. That put you in matches right at the top of the cards, and a tough schedule. December 6 2003, you faced Wild II, Takeshi Morishima and Takeshi Rikio in NOAH, and then three days later you were defending the U-30 Championship against Naomichi Marufuji.
Tanahashi: Ah yeah, in Osaka.
–After the Marufuji match you said that it was a very big win for you. You also said that you wanted to bring Marufuji over to NJPW.
Tanahashi: They were the same words (Jun) Akiyama had used toward me in the G1. To bring him over. I mean at that point everyone regarded Marufuji as a genius.
–People used that word for you as well.
Tanahashi: They did, and I hated it. They called me ‘the genius of the sun’. That’s a rough label to have!
–It comes with a lot of pressure.
Tanahashi: I kind of dug the ‘sun’ part. It’s bright, energetic, that’s fine. But ‘genius’, man. I was practically screaming ‘don’t call me that!’
–You thought that name was better suited to Marufuji?
Tanahashi: Marufuji was a genius. Is a genius, but especially back then. In the years since you had guys like Okada, like Ibushi that had that same smoothness and perfect execution, but back then there was nobody like Marufuji. That U-30 match was really something.
Hiroshi Tanahashi’s life story can now be told in this series of autobiographical interviews, available for the first time in English!<–Ace’s HIGH #29: The Ace main events!Ace’s HIGH #31 Coming November 25! ->–So last time we s...
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