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Tanga Loa (2018)

142 PTS.



There are a couple different ways we can tackle a Tanga Loa profile. The first is by talking about the Bullet Club split, one of the biggest angles of the year in which Loa took part. Loa, Tama, and their dad King Haku beat up the other members of Bullet Club that were present at G1 Special in San Francisco, including Kenny Omega, Cody, The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll, Hangman Page, Chase Owens, and Yujiro Takahashi. The Tongans declared that they, Bad Luck Fale, Taiji Ishimori, and Hikuleo were the real Bullet Club, the Bullet Club OG’s, and they were taking Bullet Club back to their roots. This meant a renewed focus on cheating and interfering in each other’s matches, which infuriated fans since a lot of interference took place on the hallowed ground of the G1 Climax. In the ensuing months, the group added to their ranks by recruiting Robbie Eagles, Gedo, Jado, and Jay White. White would eventually assume leadership of the stable, once again simply named Bullet Club due to The Elite announcing their departure from the group.

If storylines don’t tickle your fancy, we could talk about Tanga Loa’s championship success. Loa, Tama, & Fale lost the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship to CHAOS (Beretta, Tomohiro Ishii, & Toru Yano) at Wrestle Kingdom 12, but regained the belts the next night at New Year Dash!! The trio held them for 118 days with successful defenses against Ryusuke Taguchi, Togi Makabe, & Toa Henare (The New Beginning in Sapporo, night one), Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, & Cheeseburger (Honor Rising: Japan, night two), and Taguchi, Makabe, & Michael Elgin (Sakura Genesis). They would lose the belts to Marty Scurll & The Young Bucks at night one of Wrestling Dontaku in May, but Guerrillas of Destiny would become four-time champs at the G1 Climax finals when they teamed with Taiji Ishimori to win the straps from the Super Villains. This new trio made a successful defense of the belts at Destruction in Hiroshima against David Finlay, Juice Robinson, & Taguchi. Guerrillas of Destiny would also have championship success in the 2 vs. 2 arena; they defeated The Young Bucks at Fighting Spirit Unleashed in September to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship for the fourth time. GOD ended the year by reaching the finals of World Tag League for the third year in a row. Their streak of being runners-up also continued when they lost the match to EVIL & SANADA.

So Tanga Loa had a pretty substantial 2018, having been involved in a major storyline and holding championship gold for the majority of the year. And to drive home the fact that Loa had quite a run this year, let’s take a look at how dominant and protected he was in terms of falls. One of the statistics that we look at when writing these profiles is the “total fall summation.” This is a term that I literally just invented, so go with me here. Total fall summation is the number of falls that a wrestler gained during the year minus the number of falls that a wrestler gave up during the year. For example, if Wrestler X during the year gained 10 falls and gave up 5 falls, his total fall summation would be 5. The higher your TFS, the more dominant and protected you were during the year because you won more falls than you lost.

Tanga Loa’s TFS in 2018 was 30; he won 36 falls and lost 6. Now what if I told you that Loa is one of only six men in New Japan this year to have a TFS of at least 30? That’s right, Tanga Loa scored higher than Kenny Omega, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, Togi Makabe, Hirooki Goto, Will Ospreay, EVIL, Kota Ibushi, and even his own partner Tama Tonga. That seems like a crazy statement, but the numbers do not lie. There are a few reasons why Loa’s TFS was so high. Many of the wrestlers that I named wrestled fewer matches than him, so they couldn’t win more falls. Loa was also not in the G1 Climax, nor did he wrestle a single one-on-one match this entire year, so he didn’t lose any falls that way. And when it came time for 2 vs. 2 matches, Loa cleaned up; he scored 27 falls in those types of matches, the most out of anyone on the roster. 17 of those falls were picked up on the G1 Climax undercard where Loa won 17 straight 2 vs. 2 tag matches with his finisher ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Add it all up and you’ve got yourself a dominated, well-protected run in New Japan Pro Wrestling this year.