NNew Japan Pro Wrestling

For someone who just started paying more attention to NJPW ever since this past WK, if there was a top 10 all time NJPW wrestlers, who would be on that list?

While I understand it's subjective, who are the universally recognized guys?

All ears to any top 10 lists.

In order preferably.

by Upbeat-Pause-1409

23 comments

  1. Okada, tanahashi, muto, nagata, sasaki, inoki, choshu, nakamura and hashimoto are the bests stars. Would include chono and kojima but yk 10

  2. Jado, Captain New Japan, BUSHI, Captain New Japan, Captain New Japan, Bad Luck Fale, Captain New Japan, Yujiro Takahashi, Captain New Japan, Captain New Japan

  3. From the last decade

    Okada
    Natio
    Tanahashi
    Omega
    Takahashi
    Aj styles
    Ishii
    Kushida
    The young bucks
    Suzuki

    I did a top ten of the last 10 years because I don’t wanna rank guys like chono and muto who definitely deserve to be top 10 but I’ve not seen enough of them to fairly judge

  4. The no brainers are Fujinami Tanahashi Okada Choshu, Inoki, and Liger.

    My other four would be Nagata, Hashimoto, Muto, and Naito.

  5. In no particular order:

    1. Inoki
    2. Liger
    3. Sayama
    4. Fujinami
    5. Tanahashi
    6. Hashimoto
    7. Muto
    8. Chono
    9. Okada
    10. Choshu

    Probably forgetting someone really obvious, but those are the guys who immediately came to mind.

  6. All Time in terms of importance, I think you’d have to go with the biggest guys from the biggest eras:

    Inoki, Fujinami, Choshu, Hashimoto, Chono, Mutoh, Lyger, Okada, Tanahashi, I think there are a few guys you could slot into that last spot, I’d think I’d say Tiger Mask just due to influence and to have another jr. on the list.

  7. Inoki, Fujinami, Choshu, Chono, Muto, Vader, Hogan, Gotch, Okada, Hashimoto

  8. Inoki

    Fujinami

    Liger

    Choshu

    Tanahashi

    Okada

    Hashimoto

    Muto

    Tiger Mask

    Chono

    Honorable mentions: Akira Maeda, Abdullah The Butcher, Bruiser Brody, Stan Hansen, Hulk Hogan, Vader

    Edit: Forgot Tiger Jeet Singh

  11. No particular order, assuming career success and importance is what we’re going for here.

    Inoki, Fujinami, Tanahashi, Liger, Okada, Hashimoto, Muto, Choshu for sure

    Round it out with Nagata and…maybe Chono?

  12. My Ten in no order would be

    Okada

    Tanahashi

    Vader

    Nakamura

    Mutoh

    Inoki

    Styles

    Omega

    Liger

    Hashimoto

  13. – Antonio Inoki
    – Tatsumi Fujinami
    – Riki Choshu
    – Jushin “Thunder” Liger
    – Kazuchika Okada
    – Yoshiaki Fujiwara
    – Minoru Suzuki
    – Shinya Hashimoto
    – Big Van Vader
    – Keiji Muto

    Honorable Mentions:
    – Genichiro Tenryu (was gonna put him in #1 but he’s not really an NJPW Wrestler, but he’s the best)
    – Hiroshi Hase
    – Masahiro Chono
    – SANADA (I just like the guy lol)
    – Zack Sabre Jr.
    – Shingo Takagi
    – Tetsuya Naito
    – Hiroshi Tanahashi

  14. Number one has to be Antonio Inoki. Not only was he the company’s founder, but he was also the first IWGP Heavyweight champion, and he was a student of Rikidozan (as was Giant Baba, who founded All Japan opposite of Inoki’s New Japan after the JWA went under).

    Number 2 or 3, give or take, has to be Tatsumi Fujinami. He was part of the first generation of New Japan and was the company’s first “ace” after Inoki himself. He held the IWGP Heavyweight championship a handful of times in the 80s and 90s.

    Hiroshi Tanahashi, the current President of New Japan, has to be within the top five also. Not only did he carry the company on his back through some very hard times in the 2000s as its ace, but he’s an absolute legend and one of the greatest of all-time in puroresu.

    Between #5 and #10, you have guys like Keiji Muto (AKA The Great Muta), Masahiro Chono, Shinya Hashimoto, Yuji Nagata, and Jushin Thunder Liger.

    IMO, guys like Satoshi Kojima, Kensuke Sasaki, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and Tetsuya Naito also probably make the top fifteen but fall out of the top ten.

    If I had to give you a concrete order, I’d say something like…

    1: Antonio Inoki
    2: Tatsumi Fujinami
    3: Hiroshi Tanahashi
    4: Keiji Muto
    5: Jushin Thunder Liger
    6: Kazuchika Okada
    7: Masahiro Chono
    8: Shinya Hashimoto
    9: Yuji Nagata
    10: Riki Choshu

  15. I can’t get super into the older stuff, but –

    Inoki

    Riki Choshu

    Fujinami

    Tanahashi

    Suzuki

    Shibata

    Okada

    Omega

    Naito

    Ospreay

  17. 1. Tanahashi (for saving new japan during a time when it was badddd)

    2. Liger

    3.mutoh

    4.hashimoto

    5.chono

    6. Fujiwara

    7.tiger mask

    8. Kojima

    9.naito

    10.inoki

  18. I already replied to someone’s response before scrolling through.

    Lot of awesome lists, but I’m shocked that Bob Sapp didn’t get any honorable mentions, at the least. He brought brought a breath of life to shows, and entrances were hilarious and amazing.

    I’m not saying he’s a hard Top 10, but he deserves at least an honorable mention.

  19. Obviously it’s all subjective.

    Its hard to not list the original and “new” 3 Musketeers.

    So there’s 6

    You then have

    Jushin Liger

    Okada

    Inoki

    And i’ll say naito.

    People will say tiger mask but i think the mantle/wrestlers were more famous everywhere else like AJPW and UWF.

  20. 1. Captain New Japan

    2. Bad Luck Fale

    3. Bone Soldier

    4. Bob Sapp

    5. Yujiro Takahashi

    6. Hideo Saito

    7. The Great Antonio

    8. Jado

    9. Mitsuhide Hirasawa

    10. Dick Togo

  21. 1) Ishii
    2) Ishii
    3) Ishii
    4) Ishii
    5) Ishii
    6) Ishii
    7) Ishii
    8) Ishii
    9) Tomohiro Ishii
    10) Ishii

  22. Does anyone know where I can find njpw English commentary before 2015 I used to be able to way before the njpw world app had the upgrade but now nothing as I would love to be able to watch the formation and play out of the bullet club story starting with prince devitt

  23. I commented with my list yesterday, but if you’d like more info/resources, r/PuroresuRevolution is also good. If you want more classic/hard hitting stuff, AJPW before 2000 is the way to go. I’d direct you to r/ClassicAJPW, and r/ajpw for that. I love talking Japanese wrestling and suggesting things so if you’re curious, just shoot me a DM. I also have some suggestions on how to get physical copies of things (Blu-Ray, DVD) if that’s something you’d be interested in

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