Hiroshi Tanahashi Shines As He Faced El Desperado In One Of His Final Matches At NJPW ROAD TO TOKYO DOME Event

By: Lewis Carlan

A sold out crowd of 1,323 fans filled the Light Cube Utsunomiya to witness the legendary Hiroshi Tanahashi compete in one of his final matches before officially retiring on Jan. 4th.

In his third to last ever match, Tanahashi went one on one with El Desperado. The bout was highly competitive but in the end, Tanahashi would not be denied as he defeated Desperado at the 18:30 mark after hitting his patented High Fly Flow finisher.

Following the match, Tanahashi and Desperado both bowed to each other as a sign of great respect. They shook hands as Desperado raised the arm of Tanahashi. Before he departed, Tanahashi gave a lengthy speech to the crowd and then greeted all the fans as he made his way to the back.

Many fans appeared to get emotional as Tanahashi made sure he gave out plenty of hugs, hand shakes and high fives as he went around the arena greeting everyone who came out to bid him farewell.

Photo Credit: NJPW

Hiroshi Tanahashi has two matches left in his career and they are as follows:

• Dec. 22 – Kosei Fujita at Korakuen Hall
• Jan. 4 – Kazuchika Okada at Tokyo Dome

Here are the full results for NJPW Road To Tokyo Dome on Dec. 21 courtesy of purolove.com:

• DOUKI & SHO defeated KUUKAI & Tatsuya Matsumoto (8:30) by referee stop (DOUKI defeated Matsumoto).
• Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma defeated Katsuya Murashima & Zane Jay (9:04) after a King Kong kneedrop by Makabe against Jay.
• Toru Yano, YOH, Master Wato & Shoma Kato defeated Taichi, Satoshi Kojima, Tiger Mask & Masatora Yasuda (8:48) after a Swan Dive Uppercut by Wato against Yasuda.
• Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, Shota Umino, Yuya Uemura & Oleg Boltin defeated “King of Darkness” EVIL, Ren Narita, SANADA,
• Yujiro Takahashi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (12:14) after a Kannuki Suplex Hold by Uemura against Takahashi.
• Great-O-Khan, Callum Newman & Jacob Austin Young defeated Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi & Daiki Nagai (9:54) after a TIME BOMB by Newman against Nagai.
• Yuto-Ice, OSKAR, Yota Tsuji & Taiji Ishimori defeated Zack Sabre Jr., Ryohei Oiwa, Hartley Jackson & Kosei Fujita (10:45) after Tsuji’s gene blaster against Jackson.
• Hiroshi Tanahashi Final Road ~ Enishi: Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated El Desperado (18:30) with the High Fly Flow.