8 replies to this topic

[Ditch]

FMW! ECW! Zero-One! Then he went to Midbreath and got ripped and started throwing the Sliding D!

[Alan4L]

Top 20 but only JUST outside top 10!

Dude is a legend. He's been going at such a high level for so long and has done so much in so many different places. Haven't seen a ton of his FMW stuff but what I've seen I have loved. Loved him in ECDub. His 2001-2006 stuff is really underappreciated (many gems to be found there) and the "new" Tanaka that came about in 2007 was incredible for at least three years. In the last two years he's dropped a tiny bit but he still remains at a high level for me.

[DylanWaco]

Would probably make the bottom ten/fifteen of my top hundred.  I have a soft spot for the guy, but I don't think he was ever a great worker.  Lots of periods of "good" and he is one of the few Japanese guys who will occasionally have a match I like these days.  I haven't watched any FMW in a while but I did like him there, though I'm not sure he's a top five guy in the history of the promotion (cue Flik in 5...4...3...2..)

[Lee]

Fuck, I love Masato Tanaka, and it's like something that's totally crept up on me. I mean, I've always been a big fan of his. Any promotion, any era, he's always had 'it', and yet he's never been someone who comes immediately to mind. I'm changing that today.

[Curt McGirt]

Top 30. Always enjoyed him, more from the great FMW days than recently, but I'll still watch pretty much any match with him in it. I think my 30-40 is gonna be full of FMW guys.

[jaedmc]

I reeeeeeeeeeeeallly like Masato Tanaka. His chunky days and his modern cut up days have been the source for some quality matches. And I think he has actually been influential though on a smaller scale.

I think Top 50 is more likely. I can see myself ranking more guys of his generation AND guys from the generation after him ahead of him so that feels about right.

[Ditch]

I went top 75. I'm not big on Sliding D Tanaka, and I think FMW is a tad overrated. But he does bring the effort, and that means lots of good matches over his career.

[Ditch]

This seems like to small a number of votes, so... BUMP.

[rzombie1988]

He would be atleast top 30 for me, maybe higher. He has been in so many good matches for such a long time. Honestly, he could probably get a good match with anyone. He's one of those go to guys like Sekimoto where it's quality anytime anywhere. I think he's underrated.

Tanaka would definitely be a Top 5 FMW guy. It would probably be:
1) Onita
2) Hayabusa
3) Kudo
4) Tanaka
5) Gannosuke/Kanemura

He's always been really reliable and he worked that role alot in FMW. He'd be higher, but he never got the push. That's pretty much the story of his career. He didn't really get what he deserved until the late 2000's in NJ and Z1. I really enjoyed his stuff with Kanemura in FMW. He also got alot of good stuff out of Mike Awesome in ECW that Mike only showed with Hayabusa otherwise. I'd be interested in hearing the arguments against him.