Details On NJPW Choosing Hiroshi Tanahashi's Last Opponent, Other Top Choices

This past weekend, Hiroshi Tanahashi's final opponent for his retirement match at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 was revealed. It turns out the opponent is none other than Kazuchika Okada, the former-NJPW-turned-AEW star who served as arguably Tanahashi's biggest rival. While the move isn't entirely surprising given the two's history, it was somewhat out of the blue, especially following speculation Tanahashi's final opponent could be WWE star and old rival Shinsuke Nakamura, though a report last week seemed to shoot the idea down.

On the latest "Wrestling Observer Radio," Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer gave some insight on how New Japan chose Okada as Tanahashi's last opponent. Alvarez revealed the deal to finalize Okada in the spot had been worked on for weeks, while Meltzer also confirmed that Nakamura and former NJPW star Tetsuya Naito were candidates to wrestle Tanahashi.

"Nakamura was interested in doing it," Meltzer said. "I don't know what happened. There's a lot of stories going around. The only thing I know is ... he was interested, because he did that thing a couple weeks ago. I remember asking about it at the time, and they, from WWE, they said, 'Well, there's no deal, but ... he does have something in his contract that he can do stuff.' But they still have to approve it, so I don't know where that stood or how that fell apart. ... Naito was asked about it, and said he would do it. But I think ... then they didn't follow up on it, because I think Okada was a bigger name to them for that spot than Naito."

In the end, Meltzer believes Tanahashi, who is also NJPW President, decided to go with Okada due to their history.

"I think this is one of the reasons he made the pick was if you look at Tanahashi's career and go who was Tanahashi's greatest opponent, the answer is Okada," Meltzer said. "It's not even debatable. ... There's no argument there. It's not Naito, it's not Nakamura."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription