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EVIL (2018)

174 PTS.



EVIL’s year started off with a major win at the Tokyo Dome, as he and SANADA followed up their 2017 World Tag League victory by defeating the Killer Elite Squad for the IWGP Tag Team Titles. This reign was arguably the first time two legitimate singles heavyweight stars have held the titles since Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata’s very brief 38-day reign in 2015, and New Japan quickly took advantage by having the tag belts involved in a pair of singles feuds. With EVIL set to challenge the aforementioned Goto for his NEVER Openweight Title and SANADA named as Kazuchika Okada’s next IWGP Heavyweight Title challenger, a tag title match between all four men was signed for the main event of the 2/6 Korakuen show. The match electrified Korakuen as EVIL pinned Goto to retain. Four days later however he came up short in his challenge for the NEVER title at the New Beginning in Osaka show (as did his partner in his own title challenge).

After missing about five weeks due to injury, EVIL returned to the ring just in time to begin building to a rematch with Killer Elite Squad, and he and his partner successfully retained their titles on April 29th at the Wrestling Hinokuni event. EVIL would next look to ROH, where he took part in a pair of tours, one on the east coast of the US and one in the UK. He received his second shot at singles gold of the year in London, where he challenged Dalton Castle for the ROH World Title on May 26th, but again came up short. Back in New Japan, his fortunes took a turn for the worse as well, as on June 9th he and SANADA lost the IWGP Tag Team titles to the veteran team of the Young Bucks. But also on that show came arguably EVIL’s biggest moment of the year, as he ran off the new IWGP Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho to a raucous ovation from the crowd after Jericho was beating down Tetsuya Naito following their match. It seemed obvious EVIL and Jericho were on a collision course, but that match would not happen for many months to come. In the meantime, a rematch for he and SANADA against the Young Bucks at the G1 Special in San Francisco show went no better for them, as the Bucks retained their titles.

Following that loss tag team competition went to the back burner for EVIL, as he shifted his attention to taking part in his third G1 Climax in the A block. He entered the Budokan on August 10th at 4-4 and with no path to the final, but facing an opponent, Jay White, who was very much alive at 6-2. Had White defeated EVIL he would have been able to reach the final depending on the result of the following Okada-Tanahashi match, but EVIL instead ended his G1 prematurely, beating White and wrapping up a winning 5-4 record.

EVIL then began losing several falls in multi-man tags to Zack Sabre Jr. via flash pins, which lead up to a scheduled singles match between the two of them at King of Pro Wrestling on October 8th. However, this turned out to be a bit of a red herring, as the match never took place due to EVIL being brutally attacked before the bell by a returning Chris Jericho, finally reigniting their feud that started way back at Dominion. After Jericho left the scene Sabre continued beating on him, which lead to a reversal of sorts from what happened in Osaka, as Naito ran out to save his partner (and set up his own rematch with Sabre). This all led to EVIL and Jericho headlining the Power Struggle event in November for the Intercontinental title, but though EVIL fought valiantly and even managed to put Jericho through a table from the apron to the floor with his signature STO, ultimately he was forced to submit to the Walls of Jericho. In his third singles title challenge of the year (counting the ROH World Title shot) he had once again come up short.

But luckily for EVIL things would turn around for him as 2018 drew to a close. Once again he reunited with his partner SANADA to compete in the 2018 World Tag League, where they were looking to defend their crown and repeat as champions. They again reached the finals after going a very impressive 10-3, where they found themselves matched up with the Guerrillas of Destiny (now IWGP Tag Team Champions, having beaten the Young Bucks in Long Beach back on September 30th) for the second straight year. Though GOD had beaten EVIL & SANADA in the tag league less than two weeks earlier, this time it was the LIJ duo who got the win, as they successfully repeated as World Tag League champions. The Young Bucks would assert themselves in the post-match, however, pointing out that they never got their rematch with GOD, and the expected title match at Wrestle Kingdom 13 was thus made into a three-way. Surprisingly EVIL & SANADA themselves welcomed this change, stating that it was a chance for them to get revenge on the Bucks for their two losses to them earlier in the year. So with that an up-and-down year for EVIL came to an end, as he once again found himself back in the tag division, his eyes set on regaining tag team gold.