>>6682402Tanahashi was probably on his side tbqh
Naito came in and beat him at the New Japan Cup, which was pretty big, but at the time, the champ was Togi Makabe. They proceeded to have a draw in the G1 Climax, then Hiroshi Tanahashi beat him twice, all in the same year. Tetsuya Naito was put on the map, but he had a climb to make. A pretty similar climb to Hiroshi Tanahashi himself half a decade earlier. Okada just came in, beat a fellow Young Lion turned Graduate at Wrestle Kingdom, and took the belt off the very next month. From a booker and fan perspective, it's great, but I bet Tanahashi was still low-key pissed about it to that day and very understanding of Naito.
No doubt he was immensely proud of him when Naito managed to get back and become as popular, if not more popular, than Okada, the new Ace.
