Hiroyoshi Tenzan Retires After 35 Years

Hiroyoshi Tenzan, one of the greatest professional wrestlers in New Japan Pro-Wrestling history, called time on his career on Saturday, August 15, wrestling one final match against his longtime ally, tag team partner, and friend, Satoshi Kojima. The 55-year-old received massive cheers from the 7,777 fans inside the Ryogoku Kokugikan, entering the arena wearing his famous horns before wrestling a fantastic nine-minute match with Kojima in the main event of Night 18 of New Japan’s G1 Climax.

The match was originally scheduled as a five-minute exhibition, but Tenzan proposed removing the time limit. NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi enthusiastically agreed, much to the delight of everyone in attendance. Tenzan brought out all of his best hits, including his patented Mongolian Chops, Anaconda Vice, and Tenzan Suplex, while weathering one final Machine Gun Chop from Kojima for old time’s sake.

Kojima planted Tenzan with a pair of lethal lariats to win the match after 9:22, but only after Tenzan kicked out at one following the first lariat. Tenzan was then greeted by many of his former allies and adversaries, including Tatsumi Fujinami, Riki Choshu, Masa Chono, Keiji Mutoh, Jun Akiyama, and even Hiroshi Hase. Hiroshi Tanahashi was also there to embrace Tenzan, while Koji Kanemoto sent in a video message as well.

However, the most impactful return was Takashi Iizuka, who famously betrayed Tenzan back in 2008. After initially moving to attack Tenzan, Iizuka eventually shook hands and embraced his former friend, who was in tears by that point.

Trying to encapsulate Hiroyoshi Tenzan’s career is nearly impossible. He’s a former four-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, tied with Keiji Mutoh for sixth all-time. He’s also a former 12-time IWGP Tag Team Champion, the most reigns in the title’s history and nearly twice as many as anyone else.

Tenzan is also a three-time G1 Climax winner, having won the tournament in 2003, 2004, and 2006. He is also a three-time G1 Tag League winner, now known as the World Tag League, winning twice with Kojima in 2001 and 2008, and once with Osamu Nishimura in 2003.

A proud member of New Japan’s “3rd Generation”, Tenzan can say that he wrestled just about every major name to compete in an NJPW ring who emerged during the 1990s. He had wars with Chono, Mutoh, Shinya Hashimoto, Yuji Nagata, Shinjiro Otani, Manabu Nakanishi, Riki Choshu, Kensuke Sasaki, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Katsuyori Shibata, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada, and countless others synonymous with New Japan.

He also helped teach several young wrestlers throughout his career, including Hirooki Goto, Tetsuya Naito, Hiromu Takahashi, EVIL, Jay White, Shota Umino, and G1 Climax finalist Ryohei Oiwa. Hiroyoshi Tenzan’s fingerprints are all over New Japan, and the promotion’s story cannot be told without mentioning Tenzan and his trademark horns countless times.

This man leaves wrestling as a genuine legend and one of the greatest wrestlers not only in New Japan history, but in the history of Japanese wrestling as a whole. From all of us at WrestlePurists, we wish you the best of luck in your life after wrestling.

Elsewhere during the show, former Open the Dream Gate Champion Shun Skywalker arrived in New Japan Pro-Wrestling as a signed talent and officially joined House of Torture. You can read more about that here

The show also featured the semi-finals of NJPW’s G1 Climax 36, with Ryohei Oiwa and Yuya Uemura securing their places in tomorrow’s final. You can read more about that here.