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Hirooki Goto (2018)

170 Pts.



Hirooki Goto’s year was defined by the NEVER Openweight Title, as he spent the entire calendar year either defending or challenging for that belt. He had previously lost it to Minoru Suzuki on April 27th, 2017 and came up short again on June 11th at Dominion, but after much convincing was able to get a second rematch at Wrestle Kingdom 12 that also saw both men put their hair on the line. In a match that many fans viewed as the very best the 2018 edition of Wrestle Kingdom had to offer, Goto came back from being choked unconscious at the beginning to finally vanquish Suzuki and win the NEVER title for a second time.

His first defense came on February 10th at New Beginning in Osaka. Four days earlier he and CHAOS stablemate Kauzchika Okada had unsuccessfully challenged LIJ’s EVIL & SANADA for the IWGP Tag Team Titles, with Goto being pinned by EVIL. In Osaka, Goto avenged that pinfall by retaining his title against him. Less than two weeks later brought Goto’s second defense, a unique matchup with ROH’s Beer City Bruiser during the annual Honor Rising crossover events. But his third defense was easily the most memorable of this reign, as he took on Juice Robinson in a rematch of a title contest from early 2017. Juice showed just how far he had came in 14 months by lasting over 26 minutes against Goto this time (versus under 15 last time), but once again the result was a successful defense for Goto.

At this point, two would-be challengers both stepped up looking to be Goto’s next: the bruising gaijin power fighter Michael Elgin and the newly heavyweight Suzukigun trickster Taichi. Weeks of Taichi sneak attacks and wild brawls lead to a 3-way match at Dominion, where Elgin pinned Taichi to win the NEVER title. A singles rematch for Goto was only natural, especially since he hadn’t even been involved in the fall, and came just 8 days later at Korakuen Hall. Much to the surprise of many, Goto defeated Elgin to quickly become NEVER Openweight Champion for the third time. Following Goto’s victory over Elgin, another gaijin powerhouse stepped up to be the next challenger. Goto defended his title against Jeff Cobb on July 7th at the G1 Special in San Francisco show and was once again successful, perhaps giving him a little bit of momentum heading into the actual G1 tournament.

Unfortunately for Goto whatever momentum he did get from that successful defense wasn’t enough, as he suffered his worst G1 result in 9 years. His 6 points in the 2018 G1 represented his worst showing since 2009, and that year’s tournament only featured 6 matches which meant he actually went 3-3. Since this year’s G1 was 9 matches he went just 3-6, with his only 3 wins coming over SANADA, Toru Yano, and Tama Tonga (via DQ). Even Juice Robinson, who despite also winning a major match at the G1 Special show prior to the tournament (over Jay White for the IWGP US Heavyweight Title) was struggling with a broken hand and a 2-6 record managed to finally beat Goto in a singles match on the final B block night. It was a dismal end to an equally dismal G1 for Goto, but perhaps the very worst lowlight of his year was still yet to come.

Taichi was in a bad mood after being left out of the G1 entirely and decided to take it out on the same man he had targeted earlier: Goto. The two finally met in a singles match for the NEVER title on September 17th at Destruction in Beppu, and after interference from his Suzukigun mate El Desperado, a low blow, and an Air Raid Crash, Taichi pulled off the upset and won the title.

Though Goto had basically been screwed out of the NEVER belt, he seemed oddly at peace with the whole thing and somewhat disinterested in challenging for it again. When his CHAOS mate Will Ospreay pinned Taichi in a six-man tag he had also been involved in at King of Pro Wrestling on October 8th, Goto was fully supportive of the junior heavyweight stepping up to challenge for the belt. That match had been scheduled for Power Struggle in November, but a freak injury to Ospreay while competing back in the UK quickly shuffled things around. Goto awkwardly challenged Taichi to yet another rematch for the NEVER title at that same Power Struggle event, and on November 3rd he won the belt for the fourth time (and third time just in 2018). It seemed that no matter what Goto did, he could not escape the NEVER.

In his never-ending (no pun intended) quest to elevate the prestige of the title he found himself wedded to, Goto moved on to a new target: the Golden Star, Kota Ibushi. Ibushi at first showed no interest in challenging Goto for the belt, however, stating on Twitter that he didn’t know what the title was supposed to mean and wasn’t sure he wanted to challenge for it. This all came to a head at Korakuen Hall on November 18th, with the two of them on opposite sides of a six-man tag. Following the match, Goto again challenged Ibushi, who again was non-committal. Goto, exasperated, claimed he was officially giving up on him, prompting Ibushi to yell “CHOTTO MATTE CHOTTO MATTE!” (wait a second!). Ibushi quickly asked him why he was giving up so easily, and then accepted the challenge in one of the funniest moments of the year. Goto grinned, revealing that this was his SECRET PLAN to get Ibushi to accept all along, and the match was set for the World Tag League finals on December 9th.

But perhaps in true Hirooki Goto fashion, he spent all this time and energy convincing Ibushi to challenge for his title…..and then promptly lost his championship to him, as Kota was crowned the new champion. The NEVER title once again quickly shifted away from Goto, as Will Ospreay finally returned to the ring on the same show after nearly two months away and defeated Taichi in a NEVER #1 Contendership match. This meant the Wrestle Kingdom 13 title match was already set by the end of the night, and it wouldn’t involve the man who had quite literally carried this championship all year long. However, once again Goto seemed strangely at peace with it, tweeting out simply “Thank you NEVER” after the show and moving on. It was an oddly fitting end to a very odd year for New Japan’s resident samurai.