Chris Jericho On How Working With Tanahashi Reminded Him Of The Undertaker

AEW star Chris Jericho appeared on Busted Open Radio to talk about his book, 30 Years Of Smashes, Matches & Hits: The Complete List of Jericho. One match discussed was Jericho's Wrestle Kingdom 14 match with Hiroshi Tanahashi. Jericho listed it as an honorable mention a match he likes better than his famous Wrestle Kingdom match with Kenny Omega.

"The Tanahashi match is one of my top favorite matches in the honorable matches section," Jericho said. "That one kind of came out of nowhere. Tana's been working almost as long as I have, I think he's been working twenty five years. And I've always heard of Tanahashi, but I never really knew anything about him. And when I went to New Japan, I only did six matches there, but three of them were headlining the Tokyo Dome. 18 was versus Kenny, 19 was versus Naito and 20 was versus Tanahashi. And each one, like, I think my Tanahashi match was even better than the Kenny match, which is the one that everybody talks about, because I knew about Kenny. Kenny and I were obviously both from Winnipeg and there was a connection there. Plus we're both Canadian. But with Tana, I really didn't know."

Jericho also talked about how effortless it was getting in the ring with Tanahashi. He compared his skill to that of another former opponent of Jericho's, WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker.

"When you get in the ring with him (Tanahashi), wow," Jericho said. "He is so good, I'm smiling just thinking about it. What it actually reminded me of was the first time I ever worked with Undertaker, who I did not work with until I had been in the WWE for about ten, twelve years. We just never were on the same show and never really crossed paths. And to be in there with a guy like that was just unbelievable, like 'oh my gosh it's all true. It's true! Everything you hear about The Undertaker is true! He's really that good.' And that was the same way I felt about Tanahashi. We just had so much fun being in there together and it was such a blast. He's so smooth. People think that the Japanese style is dumping each other on each other's heads and all that stuff, it's not the case at all. It was really just a great match and like I said, it helped sell out the Tokyo Dome that year. When we did the two nights in Tokyo, it was the second night My last match in New Japan, maybe ever. Who knows if we'll ever go back. But if that's the last one, what a way to go out."

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