During night-one of The New Beginning in Sapporo, Taichi brutally attacked Kazuchika Okada setting the mood for what would be an intense special single match between the two competitors. While physically weakened, the legendary spirit of Okada allowed him to put on a courageous display against Taichi — who wrestled the best match of his career in front of his hometown crowd.
Taichi grew up in Ishikari, Japan which is approximately 11 miles from Sapporo, the sight of The New Beginning in Sapporo. Despite his oft unsavory character, Taichi has grown into a major draw within Sapporo. Last year in two marquee matches against current IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental ‘Double Champion’ Tetsuya Naito during the 2019 calendar year, Taichi helped draw houses of 6,089 and 6,946 respectively.
While Taichi showed his highest form since joining NJPW in May 2006, he didn’t give up the underhanded tactics he’s perfected since joining Suzuki-Gun. However, Okada would rely on skillful counters to fend off from the Hokkaido native who came close to defeating the former 5x IWGP Heavyweight Champion on multiple occasions.
The Sapporo crowd gave Taichi far more support than other cities, loving the effort shown by someone from their home area. Surprisingly, he controlled over half of the match which would have been unthinkable against Okada in 2016, even after viciously attacking him the previous night.
The influences of his senpai Toshiaki Kawada shined through as the match lasted 30 minutes and 53 seconds, Taichi using much of Kawada’s famous offense in his attempts to down Okada. However, Okada would eventually put Taichi away with a Rainmaker in a hard-earned victory.
Despite failing to defeat Okada, the match officially raised the stock of Taichi within NJPW. Previously, his singles matches against Naito in Sapporo ‘made him’ but didn’t result in him feeling like a consistent threat to those regularly in marquee matches in the company.
2020 is likely to be a big year for him as NJPW announced it was doing a tour of the Hokkaido Prefecture in July, the first tour of the area in quite some time. It should not shock anyone if he picks up a major singles victory during that time.
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