Recently, WWE has lost some of its biggest stars for prolonged stretches due to injury. Main eventers like John Cena, Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins, and Randy Orton were all out at the same time, to say nothing of key injuries to Cesaro, Luke Harper and several others. Now it’s starting to become clear that the pro wrestling injury bug isn’t exclusive to North America.
New Japan Pro Wrestling experienced a different kind of talent loss earlier this year, when they had some of their top stars like AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows all leave the company to go to WWE. NJPW were then forced to elevate some new talent, in addition to leaning even more heavily on their remaining headliners. Along with Kazuchika Okada, no star is more important to NJPW right now than their “ace” Hiroshi Tanahashi, but now they will have to find a way to soldier on without him for their next big show, as he will be forced to miss the June 19 Dominion event with a shoulder injury.
Tanahashi was set to face off in a rare New Japan ladder match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Kenny Omega in one of the main events of the show, but he will be unable to compete. Tanahashi will be replaced by his tag team partner, former Ring of Honor World Champion “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin. Elgin and Omega will undoubtedly be able to have a great match just like they did in the main event of Wrestling Dontaku in April, but not having Tanahashi on the card is a major blow, particularly from a drawing standpoint.
According to Tanahashi himself, his shoulder is in such bad shape that he can’t even lift a water bottle over his head, and he had to choose between participating in this ladder match or being rested for this year’s G1 Climax. Tanahashi was set to take some time off earlier this year, but those plans were put on hold after Nakamura, Styles, and the rest decided to leave the company.
At 39, Tanhashi has been around for a long time, going all-out for over 15 years, and his body may finally be breaking down. Hopefully this is nothing serious and he is able to go at 100 percent for the summer, but the injury is a serious concern. The last thing NJPW needs is for the face of the company to have something more serious happen that would force him to miss even more time because he wrestled when he was hurt.
