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Kota Ibushi (2018)

184 Pts.



You cannot talk about Kota Ibushi’s 2018 without talking about the reunion of the Golden Lovers. Ibushi and Kenny Omega had teamed for years as the wildly popular Golden Lovers tag team in both DDT Wrestling and New Japan, but split up in 2014 when Omega signed full time to NJPW as a junior heavyweight heel in the Bullet Club; Kota was a heavyweight face at the time of Omega’s signing. The two kept their distance from each other for years, but fans held out hope that the two would reunite one day. It would take the hotheadedness of “The American Nightmare” Cody to ignite the spark. Cody challenged Ibushi to a match at Wrestle Kingdom 12, which Ibushi won. The next night at New Year Dash!!, Cody tried to injure Ibushi with a chair, but Omega ran out to stop him. The Korakuen Hall crowd screamed in delight, but Ibushi walked away before anything would come of it. Later in the month at The New Beginning in Sapporo, Cody attacked Kenny after the latter lost his IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Championship to Jay White. This time it was Ibushi who ran out to make the save. With the two former partners alone in the ring, Ibushi extended his hand to Omega. Omega initially hesitated, then fully embraced Ibushi with a big hug as confetti shot out of the corner posts. The Golden Lovers were back and there was not a dry eye in the house.

Ibushi and Omega teamed up for the first time in over three years at Honor Rising: Japan, defeating Cody & Marty Scurll on night two. They were thick as thieves ever since, wrestling an assortment of tag teams like The Young Bucks (Strong Style Evolved), Cody & Hangman Page (Sakura Genesis), Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii (Fighting Spirit Unleashed), and Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay (Road to Tokyo Dome). They won most of those battles, often with their new tag finisher the Golden Trigger. When Kenny wrestled Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Dominion, Ibushi was at ringside supporting his partner. And when Ibushi wrestled Tanahashi in the finals of this year’s G1 Climax, Omega was cheering Kota on in his corner.

There were also moments where Ibushi and Omega found themselves on opposite sides of the ring. The two had their first singles match together in six years on the final night of B Block. It was in Budokan Hall, the site of their infamous 2012 match, and on that night the result was the same: Ibushi defeating Omega. The Golden Lovers fought again at King of Pro-Wrestling in October, except it was now in a three-way dance with Cody for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. This time Kenny was the victor as he pinned Ibushi for the first time in his career to retain the belt. But no matter who won those matches, it was evident that the bond between Kota and Kenny was unbreakable.

Ibushi ended the year on a high note when he won the NEVER Openweight Championship from Hirooki Goto at the finals of World Tag League. Goto wanted to wrestle Ibushi to redeem a loss in the G1 Climax. Ibushi kept refusing because he didn’t understand what the NEVER Title meant (which is strange because he’s challenged for it twice). After a six-man tag match in Korakuen Hall during World Tag League, Goto managed to trick Ibushi into accepting the match via reverse psychology. He told Ibushi that he was giving up on asking him, which prompted Ibushi to hastily agree to the title match in a very funny moment. That’s our Kota. Ibushi defeated Goto to win the belt, his first singles championship in New Japan as a heavyweight. The Golden Lovers were champions together once more.

I’d be remiss if I also didn’t mention Ibushi’s match output in 2018. Holy Moses, what a year he had between the bells. We’ve known how special a talent he is for a long time now, but 2018 was just a golden cornucopia of knock-your-socks-off Kota Ibushi matches. So I figured, why not just list them? (Note: All ratings are my own.)

Vs. Cody (****¼) - 1/4
Golden Lovers vs. Cody & Marty Scurll (****) - 2/24
Vs. YOSHI-HASHI (****¼) - 3/11
Vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (****½) - 3/15
Golden Lovers vs. The Young Bucks (*****) - 3/25
Golden Lovers vs. Cody & Hangman Page (****) - 4/1
Vs. Hangman Page (****) - 4/7 (ROH)
Golden Lovers vs. Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi (****½) - 6/29
Vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (****¾) - 7/15
Vs. Juice Robinson (****½) - 7/19
Vs. SANADA (****¾) - 7/26
Vs. Tomohiro Ishii (*****) - 7/28
Vs. Hirooki Goto (****¼) - 8/1
Vs. Tetsuya Naito (*****) - 8/4
Vs. Kenny Omega (*****) - 8/8
Vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (*****) - 8/12
Golden Lovers vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Will Ospreay (****½) - 9/7
Golden Lovers vs. Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii (****¾) - 9/30
Vs. Kenny Omega vs. Cody (****) - 10/8
Vs. Hirooki Goto (****) - 12/9
Golden Lovers vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay (*****) - 12/15

Wow. Where do I even begin? The Tanahashi match was intergalactic levels of awesome. His G1 matches against Naito, Omega, Ishii, SANADA, and Sabre had me pumping my fist in the air. The Young Bucks match at Strong Style Evolved was everything I had hoped it would be. The Cody match at Wrestle Kingdom may have been the best match of Cody’s career. And then there’s the other Golden Lovers tag matches and the Hangman Page match from ROH Supercard of Honor and the New Japan Cup matches and OH MY GOD KOTA IBUSHI IS AMAZING!!!! He’s simply amazing. We should consider ourselves blessed to be living in the same era as this beautiful boy. Hell, he could probably get a great match out of an inflatable sex doll… and he has!