10 pro-wrestlers who’ve had the most matches outside WWE
Being a pro wrestler is one of the most difficult and taxing careers in the world. Every wrestler has to deal with not only the pain of actual in-ring work, but also the incredible toll wrestling takes on one’s psyche through constant travel, numerous expenses, and being away from one’s loved ones and family.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that many people that go into the wrestling business don’t last very long, and many that do only wrestle on a part-time basis. Then there are the exceptional few wrestlers that manage to have incredible wrestling careers that span decades, if not longer.
Some wrestlers have such incredible endurance and passion for the sport of pro wrestling that they keep going long after their bodies begin to fall apart. The ten wrestlers listed here are some of the best examples of dedication, passion and seemingly superhuman endurance. Here are ten pro wrestlers who’ve had the most matches outside of WWE.
For this piece, we’re using statistics obtained from the website wrestlingdata.com, which records info on all of a wrestler’s matches anywhere in the world, including non-televised matches and rare appearances in small promotions as well. The numbers next to each wrestler’s name is the number of pro wrestling matches they’ve had as of April 1st, 2018.
#10 Hiroshi Tanahashi - 2,098
Hiroshi Tanahashi began his wrestling career like most do in New Japan: as a ‘young boy’ that had to master the basics before he could really carve out an identity for himself.
Tanahashi became a main roster wrestler in NJPW during what many consider the promotion’s darkest era: the early 2000s was a horrible time for New Japan due to the failures of Inokism and historically-low interest in their product.
In fact, it was Tanahashi that was handpicked to be the ‘saviour’ of New Japan, the ace around whom the promotion would be built. Thanks to clever booking, Tanahashi effectively carried NJPW kicking and screaming into the 2010s, and was instrumental in bringing the company back from the brink of complete insignificance.
Of course, it also helps that he wrestled an insane schedule with brutal and lengthy matches. Tanahashi is still technically an active wrestler, and is just two matches short of his 2100th wrestling match. Not bad for a guy that spent the better part of a decade working at an extreme level and performing multiple High Fly Flows on a nightly basis.