Love Threatens To Topple Bullet Club
At New Year’s Dash, Kenny Omega shook Bullet Club to it’s core by defending his ex-Lover, Kota Ibushi. He stood between Cody & The Golden Star, reminding The American Nightmare that “I’m the leader,” as Cody was coiled to strike with a steel chair. Cody backed down, as did the rest of Bullet Club. In saving Ibushi, Omega has undone a loyalty test to Bullet Club that goes back to 2015, and put his position in the popular faction in jeopardy, and he’s done it for love.
Back in 2006, when Kenny Omega was getting his start, he noticed a young Japanese wrestler named Kota Ibushi. So enamored with the young star was Omega, that he sent an audition tape directly to DDT, in the hopes of working with the future Golden Star.
I felt like my destiny, if there is such a thing, was to come out here and fight Kota Ibushi. But he IS tough, so I felt like, whoever this guy is, I feel like I need to meet him. I need to challenge him, and you know, let’s make some magic together in the ring. Whether it be together as partners or against each other. And I though he MUST think the way I do.
It was not long until Kota and Kenny found themselves working together in DDT Pro. In 2008, DDT Pro brought the young Canadian into their promotion and he and Kota found themselves in a tag team known as…The Golden Lovers. The overly affectionate tag team captivated the DDT Pro fanbase and even won DDT gold, snagging the KO-D Tag Titles and KO-D Six Man Tag Titles twice a piece using their double 450 splash called The Golden Shower. The Golden Lovers soon found themselves signed to New Japan Pro Wrestling where they captured the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.
Omega and Ibushi eventually started focusing on their own singles careers, but still thought of each other as Lovers. This changed drastically in 2015.
After a hiatus from NJPW, Omega resurfaced as a member of Bullet Club in 2014, under it’s new leader AJ Styles. Styles won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and then Kota Ibushi won the 2015 New Japan Cup earning him a title shot against Styles. At Invasion Attack 2015, as Ibushi was ascending to the top rope for his patented Phoenix Splash, Kenny Omega got on the apron, tears in his eyes, and distracted Ibushi just long enough for Styles to recover. A Styles Clash led to a broken nose for The Golden Star, but nothing compared to the heartbreak of betrayal. Kenny had proven his loyalty to his new crew.
After 2015, Kota left New Japan Pro Wrestling, spending 2016 as a Freelancer, while Omega ascended to the top of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Nothing was spoken about The Golden Lovers, outside of a rare tweet about Kenny’s “ex.”
Then in 2017, Ibushi returned to New Japan Pro Wrestling. At first he was under a mask as Tiger Mask W, but by August he was back in full for the G1 Climax. In separate blocks, Omega and Ibushi never wrestled or interacted for the entirety of the G1. Then, after his crushing loss to Tetsuya Naito in the G1 Finals, Omega ran into Ibushi backstage, and sought consolation from his former Lover.
Throughout World Tag League, Cody Rhodes antagonized Ibushi, nominating him for a Wrestle Kingdom match. After brutalizing Ibushi time and time again, Ibushi came back strong and won a hard fought match at Wrestle Kingdom 12. The next night, Cody snapped and began attacking Ibushi. He ordered members of Bullet Club to hold Kota steady for a decapitating chair shot, but before Cody could strike, Omega rushed in to call off the attack. While members of Bullet Club deny tension, a recent episode of Being The Elite suggests otherwise. Coming full circle in his Bullet Club tenure, Kenny has chosen love over faction stability.
With WWE promising, and failing to provide LGBTQIA storylines and characters (outside of a few cartoonish stereotypes), having such an important member of the New Japan roster having to choose between Bullet Club and his ex-Lover is downright revolutionary. The Golden Lovers are proof that New Japan’s more mature, sensitive storytelling style is pushing just as many boundaries as their star-system-destroying in-ring work.
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