Tanahashi Is bWo... FOR LIFE

Hiroshi Tanahashi is one of the three or four biggest wrestlers in his home country, and one of the few Japanese stars who hasn't already appeared in WWE, WCW, or other major American promotions who has a modicum of name recognition here. He's a veritable icon in the industry, so of course, when he goes and posts a geeking-out mark photo with the Blue Meanie, one gets a sense of how wrestling paths are intertwined and how much respect performers have for each other. Here's a guy who's participated in sellout shows in the Tokyo Dome and was able to say he was the ace and part of the renaissance of what is now the second biggest wrestling company in the world, and he's genuinely excited to be wrestling in the ECW Arena and take a picture with the Blue Meanie, a guy who was mostly comedy fodder wherever he want. Of course, nothing is wrong with being comedy fodder if you're good at it, and Meanie was part of one of my favorite stables in history doing nothing but goofing on shit and generally having a grand ol' time.

No matter how big you are, what culture you hail from, or what period of time you made your hay, wrestling is the common language that binds everyone together. The picture above is a nice piece of evidence to that theory. It warms my heart to see the show of respect and admiration between generations, and maybe now, I won't boo Tanahashi as hard tonight. Well, maybe I will, but it'll be slightly ironic.