by: Aniruddh Nambudiri

(Wikimedia Commons)

This year, we saw the emotional retirement of Hiroshi Tanahashi, a man simply called ‘The Ace’ for just how important he was to New Japan Pro Wrestling and guiding their legacy and the whole company through so much. Economic crashes, a lack of interest in professional wrestling, other wrestling companies, all the controversies they went through, the rise and fall of Japanese MMA, and all the Inokism (even though it is not nearly as bad as people say it is). Through all of it, he still had enough time to be the shining face of Puro in the 2010s. Even into the 2020s, when he could barely walk without limping, he could still entertain crowds at a very high level. His final year as an in-ring competitor was a celebration of his career through all his major matches. One final match in America, one final match in the UK, one final G1 Climax, one final match with Okada. They all happened. 

A personal favorite of mine is a match he had in September, the final full quarter of his career. In one of New Japan’s special Blue Justice-branded shows, Tanahashi took on the namesake of those shows, Yuji Nagata. A matchup that was pretty much the ace of New Japan in the early 2000s against the man who took the mantle from him in Tanahashi. Two wrestlers who won tag championships with each other in NOAH in the 2000s and had a great set of matches with each other, with Tanahashi using the momentum of beating Nagata to get him to a nuclear level of hype as a star. Tanahashi even broke the record set by Nagata for the most defenses by an IWGP Heavyweight champion in a single reign. The match in 2025 was not at the incredible levels of their matches in 2007 or 2011, but it is a match that reminds you of what both have done. The legacy both have left on the sport. Granted, it is a man deep in his 50s wrestling one who is nearing 50 and has chosen to retire. It absolutely is a match between wrestlers of those ages as well. However, the novelty and feeling of celebration never go away and the match does not go on too long to where it sours. 

That world title will always be their defining legacy, though, even with their times at the top moving further and further away. Tanahashi last won the world title in 2019 in a feel-good moment that also acted as a great transition from Kenny Omega to Jay White as the top gaijin of the company. Seven years without being the top guy with the top belt. For Nagata, he had not been the world champ since 2007, but that is only if you look at him in New Japan. 

This is not an article about Hiroshi Tanahashi; there are so many great articles that help break down parts of his career. The early years, the rise to the top, the feud with Okada, the final time as the pure top, the small resurgence in the lockdown, the final year. There is not much I can add to that. However, this is, instead, a deeper look into Yuji Nagata and his final magical run at the top of Japanese wrestling that peaks in early 2023 in New Japan’s biggest historical rival, All Japan Pro Wrestling. It also includes a deeper look into the match that marked the peak of his run. A final hurrah for one of the greats of puroresu. 

The Build

This story really starts in 2017. Nagata competes in his final G1 Climax and only gets one win in the tournament. He moves into the legend role that so many of his fellow wrestlers have moved into. He beats up on the Young Lions as the starting match on tour events, he takes part in the multi-man tag matches and can get all his major moves, but never fully working at the pace expected of those in the main event scene. In the background, he also trains the next generation of New Japan. He will also have some one-off singles matches against some dream opponents here and there, but largely for a foreign audience. A match against WALTER in 2018 stands out especially. A switch flipped in 2020 during the depths of the pandemic. All hands were on deck and New Japan desperately needed the old guard to hold down the loss of major talent. One of the many things that happened to try to combat it was the company seeing old stories that could work with the empty arenas and they found it. They looked within and, for a short two-match series, revived a classic rivalry that could work with no fans purely because of how physical the matches could be. 

Minoru Suzuki and Yuji Nagata, two men in their early 50s, went out into empty arenas and just beat the life out of each other. Heavy-handed punches, chops and knees that harken back to both of their backgrounds in more legit fighting sports, the place where the rivalry began. Nagata and Suzuki met each other in high school wrestling tournaments, and they met again in empty arenas to keep wrestling alive in the roughest times. They first met in the first round of the New Japan Cup, and out of nowhere, Nagata proved he could go 20 minutes in a great match. Nagata even managed to get the win. One of the big upsets of the New Japan Cup. A man, three years after his end, beating the ageless psychopath that is Minoru Suzuki. Bleeding from his mouth, he outlasted him. He then went on and had a really good match against Kazuchika Okada, but this small run showed that Blue Justice still had fuel in the tank. 

The next year, even when things opened up, Nagata kept it up. A few matches against SANADA to help him on his path to the top of the company (let’s forget how that run at the top went) that also involved the New Japan Cup went really well for SANADA’s stock. Two special singles matches to relieve the injured Tetsuya Naito during the G1 also led to a fun 15-minute showdown with Shingo Takagi. There are two major highlights for this year with him that show where he is about to go in a short while. 

The first is on a Korakuen Hall show on the Kizuna Road tour, where multiple New Japan legends like Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan were able to showcase their still-sharp abilities in matches against top wrestlers like Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI, respectively. The main event of the night, though, was a brutal masterpiece of a bout between Yuji Nagata and Tomohiro Ishii. A classic bout of kicks and suplexes that was defined by the counters and big moves each person was able to hit. Ishii makes the seven-year age difference between him and Nagata look like a lifetime, but what makes Yuji great is his ability to turn the tide in any way he can. In the early 2000s, as an outsider, it would be through delightful cheating. In his advanced age, it’s through his body having been through so much that a few suplexes and forearms could not be much worse. A great match and showcase for an older wrestler trying to get back into the main event style.

The second was his return to American television, taking on Jon Moxley for the IWGP United States Heavyweight title. The match definitely is a television match, but this reintroduced Yuji Nagata to the American crowd that sadly still associates him with a really bad WCW run in the late 1990s that was nowhere close to his fault. It showed how much of a legend he is to have Jon Moxley, a man at the top of AEW, want to wrestle him. His American comeback is a little secondary to this story, but it made him re-enter the wrestling fan’s mind in the States and set up the renewed energy in him as a top-class wrestler. 

2022 is the year Japan finally fully opens back up, and Nagata fully embraces it. In New Japan, he manages to get a good singles match out of the Great O-Khan and even challenges for the NJPW Strong Openweight Belt against Tom Lawlor. He also exits in the first round of the New Japan Cup against Hirooki Goto. His exploits in other companies, though, are where the true story begins for us. He worked for more companies this year than in any single year in his entire career in 2022. He even has some fun one-off matches for West Coast Pro Wrestling across the Pacific Ocean. His major focus this year, however, is what finally gets us to All Japan Pro Wrestling. 

These were his first appearances in the company since 2018, when he won the All Asia Tag Titles with another man that is as synonymous with the color blue as Nagata, Jun Akiyama. This was obviously a nostalgia play, and his return in 2022 looked like more of the same. Tag bouts similar to the ones he was a part of in New Japan. He even takes part in All Japan’s equivalent to the New Japan Cup, the Ōdō Tournament. These would be his first singles matches in the company since 2012. He faced Yoshitatsu in the first round, a man who is very much still in the upper midcard and challenging in the main event. Main eventing the second night of the tournament, Nagata guts out the win. He is not as fast as he used to be and he is noticeably struggling to keep up at points, but he guts it out and moves on. He then faces Shotaro Ashino, one-half of the tag champs at the time. The man who beat Nagata’s frequent tag partner in All Japan, Dan Tamura. Nagata wins again in a match that shows Nagata once again where he is best at this time in his career, when he calls back to his high school wrestling background. This whole road then leads to the semi-finals, where he comes face to face with All Japan’s top wrestler, Kento Miyahara. The man who brands himself as the Best of the Best and, at the time I write this, the current World Champion of the promotion. When this match takes place, Miyahara is coming back from losing the world title to Jake Lee, who is certainly one of the wrestlers of all time. This match is a clear indication of what All Japan thinks of Yuji Nagata, and it is… rough. Nagata’s age finally catches up with him over here and what you get is a pretty slow match. One that makes 11 minutes look like 30 for Nagata. It’s not terrible, but it’s not great like some of Nagata’s matches in just recent memory have been. 

Blue Justice then gets to make a little history. Whenever the debut match of a wrestler is against a legend or a major established guy, that is always a sign that the company thinks quite highly of them, especially if that is on a major show. On their 50th anniversary show, that is exactly what happens when Yuji Nagata takes on the man whom All Japan thinks is their next ace, Yuma Anzai. It’s a decent enough 9-minute match, but the rub Anzai gets from losing to Nagata in his first match shows how highly the company thinks of him. It reminds me of Jun Akiyama’s first professional match against Kenta Kobashi nearly 30 years to the date before this one. Nagata then chooses Anzai as his tag partner for the Real World Tag League, another major sign of what All Japan believes he could become. 

This all leads to the fever pitch of February. Miyahara is still the champion and has lost the tag belt in a great match against Naoya Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi. The champion has been taken down a peg and is given a match against an aging star to rebuild himself as world champion. Yuji Nagata will fight for the Triple Crown on night 2 of All Japan’s Excite Series. For the first time since 2012, he will have a shot. This works for Miyahara, an “easier” match against a massive star of the previous era, someone who has been the outsider heel in the past. Remember, this is the man who danced in an All Japan ring to the New Japan theme song. Nagata, meanwhile, gets to become one of the very few to complete a Puroresu Grand Slam, winning the world title of the three biggest Japanese promotions. He had already won both New Japan and Pro Wrestling Noah’s top belts. Can he finish it off? 

The Match 

We now go to the 19th of February 2023 in the home of Japanese wrestling, Korakuen Hall, for day two of the Excite Series. In the undercard, another upset happens. Naruki Doi, a major part of the Dragon Gate Junior Heavyweight style in the mid 2000s, wins the Junior Heavyweight belt. A massive shocker as he takes the belt from Atsuki Aoyagi, who is in his early 20s. Placing this before does two things, both of which work against each other. The first is putting the idea in the heads of the fans that these older wrestlers could upset the younger wrestlers. The second is that since we have already seen one older wrestler get an upset title win, we might not see another in the main event. These work together to bring a new intrigue to the main event by the time it rolls around. 

Miyahara comes out adorned in his red and gold robes, but he comes out first. This is despite being the ace of the company. Nagata comes out and gets a massive pop in front of a crowd that just a decade earlier rang the loudest boos you can think of in the blue ring as he danced to the New Japan theme song in the center of their ring. The bell rings and the crowd chants Nagata’s name. Their company’s ace is in the ring with an outsider, yet the crowd makes Nagata feel at home. It is just what happens when a legend steps out in front of a receptive crowd that is especially buzzing after the upset in the previous match. 

The match starts slowly. Miyahara is feeling out the matchup and is making sure not to get fully overwhelmed by Nagata and his classical wrestling background. He twitches at every feint thrown by Yuji and gets trapped in holds when trying to push him back. Miyahara throws the first strike, but when Nagata answers back, he starts to work on the leg. Nagata is in his 50s, and after years of knees and kicks, Miyahara sees this as his way in. He needs to humble the outsider and conquer the legend to truly show the caliber of champion he is. These strikes also show that this match is not a simple exhibition and that we are in for a fight, especially when Miyahara misses a dropkick and narrowly avoids a PK from Nagata.

The feints from Nagata, something that both shows his legit fighting background and his tenure as a wrestler, continue to work on Miyahara and he gets his first major move off, an arm bar that immediately leads to Miyahara frantically grabbing the ropes. Nagata continues to wrench and let go of the hold, a little bit of extra damage that he can get away with. This showcases another major reason why I really like Yuji Nagata: he is a pure cheater at heart. Even as a good guy, he will bend the rules to gain an advantage and it will always play a part in the story he is trying to tell in the ring. Whether he is an over-the-top bad guy or a conquering babyface, he remains the true wrestler he is at heart. The true wrestler who has learned that even an extra two or three seconds on a hold could be the whole difference between a win and a loss. The best examples of his cheating tendencies are his matches in the early-to-mid 2000s in NOAH as an outsider heel, but you get a really small taste of it here as well, even as the old, big-name wrestling hero of the people. 

Nagata argues with the referee and is then pulled out of the ring by Miyahara. Then comes the major sign of how this match might go. Miyahara pulls out the Blue Justice salute to the crowd as the boos continue. He ties up Nagata in the guard rail before continuing his attack on the knee. Miyahara is getting annoyed by the support being given to an outsider in his company and continues to taunt both the crowd and his opponent. Nagata fights his way back into the ring and we get a forearm exchange with Nagata on the apron. Within this, Miyahara drops his guard, so Nagata goes back to the left arm on which he put an arm bar. He has his in. He wrenches on it and throws Miyahara shoulder-first into the post. Back in the ring, he puts a shoulder lock on before fully chaining into the arm bar. It leads to another desperate rope grab by Kento. Some solid kicks to the shoulder follow; the noise echoes around Korakuen Hall. 

Nagata looks for some life in Miyahara. The moment he stands back up, he brings him back down with a classic New Japan move, the Fujiwara armbar, named after the first graduate of the New Japan dojo, Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Miyahara’s movements in these holds are interesting. He moves from the bragadocious and loud conqueror to a desperate wrestler overtaken by panic. The strikes that Nagata throws actually seem to awaken him from this state and move him back to how he presents. Then, Nagata makes a mistake. He throws him into the ropes and gives Kento some space where the age and pace can make a difference. With the space, he capitalizes by finally landing a dropkick on the older wrestler. He rolls back out, and Miyahara can recover and reset. Then, when Nagata tries to crawl back in, Miyahara waits for him and lands a piledriver on the apron to kick off act two of this match with a major move.

The crowd chants for Yuji to get back, the young lions in his corner cheer him on and he slumps on his first attempt. The second attempt works, but Miyahara is on offense. He could land a major move in the ring and have a real shot at ending it, but instead misjudges the situation. He is now motivated to end Yuji Nagata. He drags him to the outside and wants to throw him back into the guard rail as he did at the start of the match, but Nagata reverses it. Miyahara fires back towards him but drops the guard once again, and when you run towards Yuji Nagata without a plan, it is exploder time. This one on the outside is brutal for both, but a major advantage for Blue Justice. The high angle on it is beautiful, with Miyahara’s head mere inches from crashing into the Korakuen floor. 

The labor of the match is settling in on Nagata. He cannot capitalize on the major move he has hit. He slumps as he gets up, as the crowd triumphantly chants his name. Miyahara is bent in the corner and is dragged to the top rope. Nagata’s right arm goes around his neck and his left is trying to lock the hold. He is thinking a top-rope exploder suplex. Miyahara forearms his way out, but Nagata screams in his face. More forearms to try and take him down, but Nagata will not vacate the top rope. A major headbutt follows. Nagata finally has the juice to lock it in and he hits the major move he was looking for. Miyahara crashes to the mat and rolls through with some fighter’s spirit of his own. High-angle German for Miyahara, a rebound off the rope before he is caught into a German from Nagata. Traditional suplex grip from Nagata is reversed with Miyahara powering a suplex of his own. Powering back up, Miyahara makes the same mistake he made on the outside; he ran at Yuji Nagata with no major plan. The exploder this time is much more swift, but Nagata labors up to his knee and with the final ounce of energy Miyahara has in his body, a massive power drive knee to the head puts both him and Nagata down for the next minute. Both men’s bodies are zapped of power after powering out of big move after big move, yet, even after showing the spirit of a fighter in his house, Korakuen Hall cannot stop chanting the same name it has chanted the whole night. 

Both fighters forearm each other on the way back. Nagata gets the upper hand before feinting the forearm, dropping Miyahara’s check and landing a rolling kick that plants Miyahara face-first into the canvas. That feint was something I did not even notice on my first viewing, but it is a small moment of pure mastery to even think about that in the exchange of blows. Nagata cannot get himself up after the rolling kick, but he knows he has Miyahara reeling. With him in the corner, he is going to go for one of his signature running knees. He gets the climb up in the setup before Miyahara uses this momentum to land a major powerbomb to slow down his momentum. With Nagata crumbling, Miyahara senses his moment. A large running knee into the ropes, followed up by another power drive knee. The first real near fall of the match has finally happened after around 20 minutes. Miyahara springs up and is thinking about the Shutdown Suplex, a move that has won him so much in his career. He gets the arm trap but as he tries to close the hold in for the suplex, Nagata snatches the left hand that was left exposed and wraps the Fujiwara armbar back in. This one is in the center of the ring. Nagata wrenches on the shoulder with pure rage. The panic once again overtakes Miyahara as he runs to the ropes as soon as Nagata’s hips are no longer fully on the hold. He simply has no one-move counter to the relentless offence to the left arm by Nagata. 

Nagata wrenches the left arm once again, but has a sharp kick blocked and countered into a leaping knee by Miyahara. Nagata runs back into the exchange but is met with a heavy lariat. Nagata gets back up and is met with a rope run version instead. The heavy strikes still do not keep him down. A high-angle German suplex without the Shutdown hold follows, it is still not enough. Miyahara’s hands fall on his head; the frustration of not being able to put away a man over the age of 50 settles in. He dusts himself off because now it is shutdown time. The hold is in, the suplex is up, yet in the wait, Nagata powers out and a leg kick is met with a knee from Miyahara. Both are back down again as they both clutch their right legs. The crowd once again loudly chants Yuji’s name. He screams whilst holding his right knee. 

The forearms are back, but the fatigue on Nagata means they are not as effective as they once were. Miyahara capitalizes with another large flying knee. Miyahara is thinking lariat and is waiting for Nagata to get back up so he can run it back, but for the third and final time that day, he makes the same mistake. He ran at Yuji Nagata without a major plan for what to do, and what follows is the Exploder hold. In the panic of his body, he leaves the weakened left hand open, and Nagata pulls it back under for the full force of the wrist-clutch Exploder suplex. Nagata crawls for the cover after a short pause period and that short pause gives Miyahara just enough time to kick out. It really felt as if it could have happened at any moment that night; it would have been there. The experience here, though, is key. Miyahara took a moment with his hands over his head after his major moves did not put Nagata down. Nagata rises back up instantly with pure rage and fire in his eyes. The roundhouse kick that was blocked earlier now lands with full force. This is followed by the reverse grip and the sheer drop. Miyahara lands neck-first onto the canvas with a backdrop driver transitioning straight into the pin.

Korakuen comes unglued. Yuji Nagata, at nearly 55 years old, has won the All Japan Triple Crown belt. He does not rise from the canvas as a hero; he falls as a martyr. He sacrificed himself in the ring and is being tended to by the young lions he brought over as support. The young wrestlers he was training as his career was supposedly winding down to its end. He tiredly shouts at the referee, who raises his hand as he rests his head on an ice bag. He finally sits up and flexes whilst in pure pain and crawls towards Kento Miyahara to show him respect, which is refused by the ace who has had an outsider come in at an advanced age and take a belt that he considered his own. 

The salutes to every flashing light follow. Each one was for a group of fans who came into Korakuen not knowing if he even had a chance to walk out as world champion. The last hurrah of a man who had given up his body for the worst of ideas and the best of ideas. The man who held the IWGP Heavyweight title for a year and defended it against every inside force from wrestling and outside force from the MMA world. The man who was ridiculed for ruining professional wrestling after being basically forced into matches against Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko Cro Cop and, predictably, losing against two of the greatest MMA heavyweights of all time in mere seconds. The man who carried a company through its rough periods of trying to figure itself out in the midst of the Japanese MMA boom. The man hated by both Antonio Inoki and smarky fans of 2000s wrestling for being too much of an entertainer. Heck, this title reign was hated by people because of the move to put it on a 55-year-old man instead of keeping it on Miyahara. I absolutely see that side of the argument. Here is the thing, though: this is not just any 55-year-old man. This is a man who is professional wrestling through and through. Campy, corny, stupid, and ridiculous, yet at the same time, earnest, filled with heart and emotion, hard-working, and awesome. A damn fine wrestler as well. One of the best to ever do it. That is who won the Triple Crown belt at age 55 in Korakuen Hall.