‘Inoki Arena’ would be a home base for NJPW.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling President Hiroshi Tanahashi has been making the media rounds. Along the way, one of the outlets he sat down with was Proresu-TODAY.
Tanahashi, who is coming off of a reign as NJPW World Television Champion, expressed that he wants to hold the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. He went on to add that he thinks it’ll be a long time before he retires from in-ring competition.
In terms of timing… it was 50-50 (as far as whether I was surprised about becoming NJPW President). I was surprised. As a wrestler, I challenged for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title once, but lost and was never crowned. I believe that as a wrestler, when you stop aiming to be the best, that’s the time to step down. When I asked myself, do you want to wear that belt? I thought, I want to wear it, so I think it’s still a long time before I retire.
As the conversation rolled on, Tanahashi mentioned that he wants to build a venue called ‘Inoki Arena’ that’ll serve as a home base for New Japan. He added that the venue would be able to be used for music and theater events by other organizers.
As a wrestler, Hiroshi Tanahashi, I want to win the IWGP World Heavyweight belt. As president, one of my goals is to build a permanent venue… So it could be music or theater. I would like to have an arena that is always in operation, with events held by other groups. If people gather there, there’s food and drinks in the area, which energizes the whole city… I would like to build an arena for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. I’ll name it the Inoki Arena… Then, 100 or 200 years from now, when today’s wrestlers are gone, the name of the arena will still be there… And they may go back through history and find out that he (Antonio Inoki) is the founder of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, or maybe they’ll meet Tanahashi in the process. Having a permanent venue is a dream come true.
Come April 6th, Tanahashi is going to be gunning for another title as he’ll be challenging Nic Nemeth for the IWGP Global Championship at Sakura Genesis.
Tanahashi dropped the World TV Title to Matt Riddle at The New Beginning in Sapporo.
