Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito, NJPW Destruction 2011 (10/10/2011)

This was for Tanahashi’s IWGP Heavyweight Title, following Naito’s five minute upset of Tanahashi in the G1 Climax.

The mistake Naito makes is immediate and gigantic, and it’s the assumption that he can beat Tanahashi without destroying his knee and without the element of surprise. This idea that he is on his hero’s level because of a pair of less-than-legitimate wins, eighteen months apart, like shooting Jesse James makes him Jesse James and not The Coward Tetsuya Naito.

When Naito fails to assert himself in any way, Tanahashi naturally does what he always does, and slowly moves to the leg. It isn’t anything so aggressive, but after a few moments, Tanahashi stops grappling and very casually slips into control. It’s the old Nigel McGuinness trick. Do some small things at the start of a match, and go wild later in the match. It’s a fine line to walk. Do too much to a limb in this first part, or commit to the bit for too long, and a lesser opponent like a 2011 Tetsuya Naito might not be able to handle his end of it. Too little, and it’s not significant. They’re the two best I’ve ever seen walk that line, and Tanahashi does it as well here as he’s ever done it. All small holds, all very casual, and over before it can become A Thing. Naito does just enough correctly to keep any minor damage in the back of your mind as a reasonably intelligent viewer with even just a little short term memory.

Now, of course, just because Tanahashi isn’t the more overconfident of the two doesn’t mean Hiroshi Tanahashi is not overconfident. He misses his flip off the apron when he tries it a little early and Naito punishes the neck. If Naito lost the match initially when he didn’t think he needed to be aggressive to start, he loses it a second time when he takes this chance and focuses on the neck instead of what’s worked for him before in a similar circumstance. Now is not the time for experimentation.

The neck work is really good though, and Tanahashi’s selling is fantastic. There’s broader sells when he comes back, but a few wonderful little touches too. What stood out the most about this match on this rewatch is how great it is with the minor touches. It’s not just Tanahashi either. Naito is so good when he’s in control at keeping the leg present in your mind through little touches. Something like giving up a chinlock with his bad leg as a fulcrum, and using one again later to greater effect when he uses the good leg for a fulcrum instead. They’re all these very small little touches that you might not normally get out of a Naito match, to the point that they’d seem like a mirage if Tanahashi wasn’t also in the ring with him. Because of all these smaller moments, Tanahashi’s comeback through knee damage has a little more behind it than usual. It’s not a thing that disappeared and came back onto the stage, but something that went into the background before moving into the foreground again, never having actually left the stage.

The final half or so of this is incredible. All year (and really for the last two), Tanahashi has been getting closer and closer to what a newer fan might really consider Peak Tanahashi. By that, I imagine that they would mean this effortless twenty to thirty minute epic involving and sometimes based around knee work, but also very much about the characters and their relationship to each other. Big slap fights, dramatic transitions, things countered or teased once or twice and paid off later, all escalating just about perfectly. He’s come close in fits and starts over the last few years, making strides for a match like that in situations like the G1 Final against Kojima or the Nakamura match in September, but this is the first time it feels like a fully realized thing. He’s been in the lab trying to figure out the right balance of each idea, and finally got the formula correct. Naito’s bad leg matters and it’s sold like something that matters, but it’s not everything. Naito’s insecurity itself is not everything either. Everything works together, hand in glove and all of that.

Naito is able to survive The Gambit and keeps bombing out Tanahashi with a completely misplaced but admirable confidence. The Stardust Press is hit, but fails this time because his knee is just bad enough to give him pause after he lands the move. The match is very clearly over after that, and everyone knows it but the poor stupid kid. He tries other bits, including the big cradle that worked in the G1 upset, but he fucked it up by waiting too long. It worked once, it’s not inconceivable that it can work again, but not when it’s such an obvious last grasp. When it’s a desperation Hail Mary after his initial plan failed, Tanahashi very obviously sees it coming and can kick out. This is as much a confidence game as anything else, and Naito’s con is revealed at this point. He had a plan. It was a bad plan, and it failed. Naito is beaten up and demoralized, and it’s then that Tanahashi unloads. Even with nothing left offensively that could work, Naito thinks he’s smart enough to counter a Sling Blade, but Tanahashi just reverses a whip into a short arm Sling Blade, totally summing up the entire match and rivalry at this point. Tanahashi follows with the Dragon Suplex, the High Fly Flow to the back, and then the regular strength High Fly Flow for the win.

This really really grew on me from the last time I saw it. I always knew it was great, but sometimes, you’re just in the right place for a certain match to do a lot for you, and I was there with this one, and at this point, it replaces Tanahashi vs. Nakamura the previous month for me as the best New Japan match of 2011. It’s not a new thing by this point that Tanahashi is the man, but this is his most engaging performance yet in that role. It’s cool to see him against Goto in 2007 or Naito in 2010, these ambitious and impressive attempts to make people. It is even more fun to see him in a match like this, where he is called into question and comes back with a definitive answer, completely shutting down a would-be usurper.

Few things in wrestling grab me more than a.) an Ace, at the peak of his power, completely dismissing a would-be challenger & b.) a strategy that is a complete misstep. Hiroshi Tanahashi is as good at the former as anyone has ever been consistently, and in this match, Tetsuya Naito came as close to mastering the latter as anyone who wasn’t missing a tooth and wearing black and yellow ever has. This is a match where not only did the winner clearly deserve to win, but for once in a match like that, where the loser also very clearly deserved to lose.

Tanahashi has been in many great matches before, arguably a few classics, but this is the first Tanahashi masterpiece. It’s the first time he got the formula exactly correct, happening to finally balance out just right after the last five years of experimentation. It’s beautiful that it just so happens to all finally come together in a match where he so summarily dismisses a would-be successor and failed imitator for lacking the courage to fully commit.

Do a thing completely or don’t bother trying. Half measures and less than full throated attempts will not dethrone Hiroshi Tanahashi at this point. It would have helped if Naito came at the thing correctly, sure. Even then, this match reveals a lack of heart and a less than perfect will in the face of someone with all the heart and will in the world. Even with a good plan, Tetsuya Naito is doomed to blow it when it matters most, because he is trying to beat Hiroshi Tanahashi while also still trying to be Hiroshi Tanahashi.

This match is what happens if Robert Ford trips on a loose floorboard and shoots himself in the dick instead.

Go Ace.

***3/4