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Ryusuke Taguchi (2018)

128 Pts.



Ryusuke Taguchi is approaching 40 (he’ll hit that magic number on April 15th of next year, in fact) and really slowed down quite a bit in 2018. Even his big Best of the Super Junior run that we’ve been accustomed to every year didn’t really happen this time around, with his total of 6 points being his lowest since 2009. The old warhorse still had plenty of hip attacks in his arsenal, but he was clearly phased out in favor of other wrestlers in the junior heavyweight division this past year.

It wouldn’t quite be right to call him a loss post either, though, as he still came away with a +7 falls differential. Instead of being a loss post, Taguchi is just rarely involved in falls at all, with his 35 total falls (either winning or losing) placing him on the lower end of the roster for that stat. Taguchi is, in many ways, kind of eternal: he will always be here throwing his butt around, putting on wacky horse masks, and otherwise bringing an often much-needed dose of levity to New Japan undercards. But even his Taguchi Japan quasi-unit seemed like much less of a focus this year, and that may speak to the role Taguchi will have going forward.