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Toru Yano (2018)

142 Pts.



Toru Yano did a lot of Toru Yano Things™ in 2018, which is to say he gave people low blows, taped them upk, sent them head-first into exposed turnbuckles, and all the like. His year actually started off with a title win, as he and his CHAOS teammates Beretta and Tomohiro Ishii won the gauntlet match for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man titles. This reign would unfortunately last just 24 hours, as the trio lost the belts right back to the BULLET CLUB team of the Guerillas of Destiny and Bad Luck Fale they had taken them from. Yano would continue getting some surprising results when he managed to beat Davey Boy Smith Jr. by count out in the first round of the New Japan Cup, but similar tactics would fail against SANADA in the second round (who Yano has been developing a rivalry with mainly centered around the Paradise Lock).

But if Yano is usually just kind of the same old Yano, he was anything but as the G1 opened. For those of you who may not know Yano was actually an accomplished amateur wrestler (yes, really) and his alma mater university was in the midst of a debilitating scandal. Yano thus decided to take it upon himself to restore the school’s good name, declaring to Tokyo Sports that he would take part in the G1 “fair and square”, even going so far as to say he wouldn’t attack anyone from behind. And to Yano’s credit, that lasted…..for two whole matches! CLEAN FIGHT YANO early in the tournament was a real fun change of pace, with Yano’s big belly-to-belly suplex quickly becoming a fan favorite on Twitter. But after going winless in his first two matches with Ishii & Zack Sabre Jr. something had to change, and change it did on July 21st against Kota Ibushi. Yano reverted to his cheating ways, and with the aid of a low blow, a chop block, a school boy, and the fact that poor Kota’s wrists were taped together, Yano had his first G1 victory of the year. He would wrap things up with just 6 points, though he also got a win over IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega (albeit one heavily tainted by BULLET CLUB interference). Sadly a title shot did not come.

Yano’s year ended in the World Tag League alongside familiar partner Tomohiro Ishii, and they ended up putting up a strong 9-4 record, just missing out on the finals after being in the mix most of the way. Perhaps the most interesting development of his entire year came at the very end, however. With the walls between CHAOS and the traditional “hontai” (or main NJPW army) rapidly coming down, Yano would find himself being saved from a BULLET CLUB attack by a familiar face: Togi Makabe, his former “Most Violent Players” teammate and the man he had betrayed all the way back in 2009 to form CHAOS in the first place. Makabe and Yano teamed up for the first time in nearly a decade on the final two shows of the year and will team again in the pre-show gauntlet match at Wrestle Kingdom 13, making this a story worth watching as we head into the new year.