During a recent appearance on the “Ace’s High” podcast, Hiroshi Tanahashi commented on his 2010 match against “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson in the 2010 G1 Climax, and more. He said,
“This was Anderson emerging somewhat. I guess I was the litmus test for that, and Anderson passed with a win over me. He was my type of wrestler. Very finessed in every little thing he did, a good rhythm to his matches. And at that point he wasn’t involved in any heel faction so I had more of a chance to interact with him outside of the ring and find out what a nice easy going guy he was … When he first came into New Japan, he would be on the receiving end of these losses from me and the rest of hontai, but kept his head up and kept working. he truly became a wrestler’s wrestler. He was someone for the boys to aspire to. ‘I want to be a pro like Karl Anderson’ kinda thing.”