Hiroshi Tanahashi has revealed his ambition to create a new arena in Japan.
On December 23, Hiroshi Tanahashi was named the new President and Representative Director of NJPW. The 47-year-old is a legendary professional wrestler who has committed over two decades to New Japan Pro Wrestling, he has held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship eight times and most recently was able to call himself the NJPW World Television Champion. Even as President, he doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
Recently, Tanahashi sat down with Proresu-TODAY to talk about his position as NJPW President alongside his in-ring career. The Ace said that, despite his new role, he has his eyes on the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and doesn’t think he’ll retire soon.
“In terms of timing… it was 50-50 (as far as whether I was surprised about becoming NJPW President). I was surprised. As a wrestler, I challenged for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title once, but lost and was never crowned. I believe that as a wrestler, when you stop aiming to be the best, that’s the time to step down. When I asked myself, do you want to wear that belt? I thought, I want to wear it, so I think it’s still a long time before I retire.”
–Hiroshi Tanahashi
In the interview, Tanahashi began talking about his goals away from the ring. Here, he revealed his goal of creating a new venue in Japan named the ‘Inoki Arena’, used for music, theatre, and, of course, professional wrestling.
“As a wrestler, Hiroshi Tanahashi, I want to win the IWGP World Heavyweight belt. As president, one of my goals is to build a permanent venue… So it could be music or theater. I would like to have an arena that is always in operation, with events held by other groups. If people gather there, there’s food and drinks in the area, which energizes the whole city… I would like to build an arena for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. I’ll name it the Inoki Arena… Then, 100 or 200 years from now, when today’s wrestlers are gone, the name of the arena will still be there… And they may go back through history and find out that he (Antonio Inoki) is the founder of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, or maybe they’ll meet Tanahashi in the process. Having a permanent venue is a dream come true.”
-Hiroshi Tanahashi
As far as his next match goes, Tanahashi was scheduled to challenge Nic Nemeth for the NJPW Global Championship at Sakura Genesis this April, but, unfortunately, The Ace has been ruled out of the contest with an ankle injury.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Hiroshi Tanahashi’s future plans as soon as we hear more.
