(photo credit: http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/)
His battles with Mike Awesome in ECW and FMW are legendary and his career has recently seen a rebirth in New Japan with matches against Hirooki Goto and Yuji Nagata. He is a former ECW World Champion, a 2-time ECW Tag Team Champion, and has held numerous titles in FMW, WEW, and World-1.
My first recollection of Masato Tanaka was when I saw his match against Mike Awesome from November to Remember '99 and my jaw dropped. I had never seen anything like that match at the time and it's still one of my favorite ECW matches to this day. Anytime I saw Tanaka on ECW, I would always stop and watch to see the incredible amounts of punishment that he would take. So, with that being said and the fact that he's still one of my favorites today, it is with great pleasure that I induct Masato Tanaka into the NHO Hall of Fame.
2 comments:
I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Masato after his ECW run in the late 90s. His series of matches with Awesome might not be the best technical matches I've ever seen but might be just as memorable to me as some of my other favorites like Flair/Steamboat.
not a bad pick, sir.. - as i've said in e-mails throughout the day.. there's probably 30+ puro guys i would have put in before him.. mostly classics.. but in terms of contemp. guys even Kanemoto, Ohtani, Akiyama, etc.
also: i think all the original M Pro class deserve to be in (arguably all before Tanaka).. Delfin, Togo, for sure.. TAKA, Shinzaki, Naniwa, Teoh, Hamada, Hidaka, Fujita, etc.
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