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Chase Owens (2018)

93 Pts.



OK, the “on Japanese soil” qualifier is kind of cheap, Owens did lose three singles matches in other countries (twice to Yuji Nagata on the Fallout Down Under tour of Australia, once to Jeff Cobb on the Kenny Omega CEO show in Florida), but technically he is undefeated in singles action for two years running now (in Japan) (on Japanese soil).
When the Don Jardine of New Japan isn’t spoiling favorites on the final day of Best of the Super Juniors (Taguchi in ‘15, Ricochet in ‘16), he’s crushing it in tag team matches and putting together some of the best and most creative closing stretches in the company. His package piledriver is instant death, and his opponents know it, as they desperately wiggle away before Chase suffers yet another tough-luck defeat. A lot of wrestlers sleepwalk through undercard tags, but Owens is a hard worker, busts his ass every night with whatever is given to him and is the kind of solid, backbone wrestler every promotion should covet.

There is more to Owens than simply eat pins for Marty Scurll (a pairing that had some pretty great promo chemistry), Kenny Omega, and a perplexed Kota Ibushi who was never quite sure why they were teaming beyond Owens being one of Kenny’s pals. Chase Owens’ 2018 was a story of heartbreak, a story of betrayal, the likes of which any man can relate to.

Owens eventually found himself a steady partner, forming a delightfully sleazy tag team with Yujiro. When they weren’t slapping around young lions, they were caught in the middle of a BULLET CLUB/Elite war that they really didn’t ask to be a part of. Torn between his Elite pals and his role as “the honorary Tongan”, the BULLET CLUB OG’s made the decision for him, beating him down with the rest of The Elite in San Francisco, prompting a heartbroken Owens to toss his Honorary Tongan t-shirt into the trash (broadcasted for the world to see on Twitter). A few months later, Yujiro spurned Owens in favor of Hangman Page for the World Tag League, the lure of ♥♥♥♥ jokes being too much for the Tokyo Pimp to overcome. I suppose that’s what you get when you shack up with a known loyalty challenged roustabout like Yujiro, but it’s still hard to not feel bad for Chase Owens, a man so loyal he not only took Yujiro back, he teamed with Yujiro & Page against LIJ at the WTL finals.

And somehow appropriately, he took the fall.