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What's the story?
With a huge IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 13 upcoming, both Kenny Omega and Hiroshi Tanahashi were slated to become free agents next month.
Apparently, Tanahashi has opted to re-sign with NJPW before his big match on January 4.
WrestlingInc.com carried the story and Tanahashi tweeted the news himself.
In case you missed it...
Tanahashi has been one of the backbones of New Japan for the better part of 15 years.
He carried the company throughout much of the 2000s and appeared to pass the torch to Kazuchika Okada over the last four years or so.
But whenever a new champion is crowned, Tanahashi is always one of the wrestlers first in line to challenge the new champion.
The top four wrestlers who have been relied upon as IWGP Champions over the last four years have been Okada, Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito, and Omega.
Tanahashi won this year's G1 Climax Tournament and defended his 'Right to Challenge' against Jay White earlier this year. It appears that NJPW will still have at least one of its biggest stars for the foreseeable future.
The heart of the matter
The report from WrestlingInc.com noted that Tanahashi resigning with the company might lead to an eighth reign as IWGP Champion for 'the Ace'.
Tanahashi also tweeted his news a little more than a week before he challenges Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 13:
The translation from WrestlingInc read: "Contract renewal with New Japan. I will do my best next year too!" Details on the length of his new deal weren't provided with the announcement.
What's next?
Since they've locked up Tanahashi, NJPW will still have one of its most reliable and biggest-name wrestlers for the near future. WWE reportedly offered two top stars of NJPW contracts, but the names weren't exactly announced to the public.
One was probably Naito who noted that he was approached by WWE back in June after the Dominion show. He revealed that he wanted to stay with NJPW and help grow its popularity.
Tanahashi is also a loyal employee of the company, so it's no surprise that he opted to resign with the company. While Shinsuke Nakamura did win the United States Title this year after unsuccessfully challenging for the WWE Championship, he lost the title to Rusev on Christmas Day.
Perhaps Tanahashi has seen how Nakamura has been booked and decided to stay where he is most comfortable. Or perhaps he never considered going to WWE or another promotion.
Whatever the reasoning was, his resigning is a good sign in the wake of the Elite all departing the promotion in the new year.
