Minoru Tanaka

[10.0] "One of the all-time greats of junior heavyweight wrestling. BattlARTS/early NJPW Minoru Tanaka was just such a joy to watch. So technically gifted and smooth, able to adapt effectively to just about any opponent. Whether it was tagging as part of the Junior All-Stars with Kanemoto, or some of his singles stuff like vs. TAKA, Murahama, Liger, AKIRA...that 98-02 run in particular was just incredible. In 2023, at the age of 50, he still looks like he has not lost a step, still hoping for one last IWGP Jr. Title match..."

[8.0] "A decent grappler and technical wrestler that can do both shoot-style and more traditional matches. He's probably one of the more underrated guys to come out of Japan. He has a tremendous profile as a wrestler in both BattlArts and the Japanese indie scene. He was also a pretty credible guy in RINGS, which says a lot about his ability I think."

[9.0] "One of the best technical junior heavyweights of all time, incredibly sound and crafty, pushing 50 years old and still has agility and speed on par with many juniors half his age. On top of that he's an amazing coach that will produce, along with his GLEAT peers, some of the best rising stars of this decade."

[9.0] "Minoru is a strong contender for most underrated jr. heavyweight in history. I don't think he's ever had a match where he looked lost or out of place, this guy can adapt to every opponent."

[9.0] "Minoru Tanaka is a talented technical wrestler who very narrowly falls short of being one of the greatest. Originally a shootboxer, he would be trained by the great Fujiwara. He soon became a wrestler who could do at least a bit of everything in the ring, but his strong suits were always his matwork, submission holds and shootstyle-like striking. He's about to turn 48 now, but you wouldn't tell that by his in-ring work, since he hasn't lost a beat since he started in PWFG. And, yet, as skillfull as he is, he has always been somewhat overlooked for other wrestlers from his time. The thing is, while his resumé is somewhat impressive, some of his best matches and accomplishments would occur in the darkest years of the respective promotions. For instance, he was both IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion many times during 2000 to 2008, but that was quite a low point for NJPW, overall, so most people just didn't really care about what the company's junior division was like. Likewise, he got to be both AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Champion and All Asian Tag Team Champion, but that company was (arguably) at its lowest by 2011-2013. Minoru would keep on fighting for pretty much every japanese promotion plus some overseas, but he spent the latest years of his career appearing mostly in NOAH and WRESTLE-1. By then, Minoru was already at that point in which it was expected he would put other wrestlers over him. Now, he will still get a victory once in a while, but he's putting over quite a few people for a long time now - most of which are very obviously not even close to his level. For some, that might only go to show Minoru is not an egocentric, selfish guy, but I've got to wonder if this is one of those rare cases in which some selfishness would've been welcome, as Minoru could finally get some big wins to get the credit he desearves. Oh, well. Be it as it may, Minoru's career is the product of both some lack of luck and his own personal choices, but he has never stopped performing as a top notch wrestler. On a side note, his in-ring work suffers a little when he performs as "Heat" (a gimmick based on a video game I'm not really familiar with), as his selling comes off as weird, sometimes, but not to the point of being dreadful."

[9.0] "Man, how old is he? 45. He is still pretty awesome at this age. And that's not judging from 45 year old standards, he legitimately is a great wrestler. Very good from a technical standpoint as well as a striking stand point. Very agile and versatile. Has a plethora of great matches and feuds. With Koji Kanemoto in particular. Been wrestling for years, and I hope that he doesn't slow down any time soon."

[8.0] "He's 45 yet still one of the smoothest juniors in the world. It's crazy how he can still go with the best of them. True sign of a great worker"

[9.0] "Even for his size and age Tanaka can do it all. I wish there were more pros like him that still live and breath wrestling."