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BUSHI (2018)

130 PTS.




The Jet Black Death Mask has been a part of Los Ingobernables de Japon since nearly day 1 (only EVIL can claim to have joined up with Naito first) and continued on in his role as the group’s anchor in 2018. Of course, you could view “anchor” in either a positive or negative context and BUSHI does remain clearly entrenched as LIJ’s loss post, though his actual win-loss record isn’t nearly as bad as you might think. The fact that his record of winning 2 more falls than he lost last year is the worst mark in LIJ perhaps speaks to their dominance in multi-man tags; for comparison’s sake, CHAOS’ loss post was probably Gedo before he left the unit (lost 45 more falls than he won) and Suzukigun’s loss post TAKA Michinoku lost a staggering 57 more falls. BUSHI’s marks are helped as well by having a decent 5-5 record in singles matches, including a 3-4 run in the 2018 BOSJ.

Much of the early part of his year was spent teaming with Hiromu Takahashi in a quest to capture the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Titles, but the team came up short on three different occasions. It began with a three-way title match also involving champions Roppongi 3K and fellow challengers Kanemaru & Desperado from LIJ at the Anniversary Show in March that saw his team not involved in the fall, as Desperado pinned SHO to kick off their record-breaking tag team title reign. The same match would happen a month later at Sakura Genesis with the exact same result, as again BUSHI & Hiromu were unable to stop Desperado from pinning SHO to retain. Finally, at Korakuen Hall on April 23rd Hiromu & BUSHI were able to get a straight 2-on-2 match with the champions, but came up short, as Desperado ended up pinning Hiromu after typical cheating tactics in a wild match. This would lead to an equally wild pair of singles matches at Wrestling Hinokuni with BUSHI & Hiromu picking up a measure of revenge, each defeating their rivals in singles matches (though BUSHI’s win over Desperado came by DQ when Kanemaru interfered, leading directly to the following match where Hiromu pinned Kanemaru). That would essentially end BUSHI’s involvement in the feud, however, as it transitioned into a Hiromu-Desperado singles conflict from there.

Hiromu would move on to the singles junior title and unfortunately be forced to step aside due to injury not long after, leaving BUSHI without his junior tag partner. This would be resolved on October 8th at King of Pro Wrestling, when Los Ingobernables de Japon introduced their newest member, Dragon Gate’s Shingo Takagi. The combination of BUSHI’s speed and Shingo’s power proved to be a formidable one in the inaugural Super Junior Tag League. The pair put up a strong 5-2 record, with their only losses coming to the junior tag champions Kanemaru & Despy and the legends Tiger Mask & Jushin Liger (perhaps the biggest upset of the entire tournament), which was enough to earn them a spot in the 3-way finals. It was deja vu all over again for BUSHI, as he once again found himself in a 3-way match with Roppongi 3K and Kanemaru/Despy and yet again his team was not involved in the fall, as SHO finally avenged those pinfall losses to Desperado by pinning him with the Shock Arrow to win the league for his team.

But rather than allow Roppongi 3K to move into the natural junior tag title shot against the champions one would assume they earned by winning this, BUSHI & Shingo quickly pointed out that not only were they not pinned in the final but they had actually defeated the league champions (in the opening match for both teams, 10/16 at Korakuen Hall). For whatever reason New Japan agreed with them that they deserved another shot, and the Tokyo Dome title match became a 3-way rematch of the junior tag league finals. BUSHI has been after these junior tag team titles seemingly for years, going all the way back to when he first joined LIJ and derisively referred to the matches (which then featured foreigners nearly exclusively, save for the occasional presence of KUSHIDA in his team with Chris Sabin) as “gaijin bathroom breaks” and expressed a desire to find a partner and make the belts relevant again. Perhaps ironically he now finds himself contesting these titles exclusively with other native wrestlers. Either way, will he finally capture them at the Tokyo Dome, or will he come up short yet again?