Taguchi Japan

Through ROH's working relationship with NJPW, Ring of Honor mainstay Michael Elgin made his debut for NJPW by taking part in the 2015 G1 Climax between July 23 and August 15.[5] Elgin quickly became popular among Japanese crowds and his performance in the tournament was called a "career resurgence".[6][7] On February 20, it was reported that Elgin had signed a two-year deal with NJPW.[8] This was confirmed by NJPW on March 3[9] and on March 20, he and Hiroshi Tanahashi teamed with Juice Robinson to unsuccessfully challenge Bullet Club (Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks) for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship.[10] On April 10, Elgin and Tanahashi teamed with Yoshitatsu at Invasion Attack 2016, to win the titles from Bullet Club.[11] They made their first successful defense on April 23 against Bad Luck Fale, Kenny Omega and Yujiro Takahashi.[12] before losing the championships back to The Elite at Wrestling Dontaku 2016.[13]

On June 19 at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall, Elgin replaced an injured Hiroshi Tanahashi and defeated Kenny Omega in NJPW's first ever ladder match to become the new IWGP Intercontinental Champion.[14] On September 25 at Destruction in Kobe, Elgin lost the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to Tetsuya Naito, beginning a feud between Elgin, Tanahashi and several others with Naito's Los Ingobernables de Japon stable.[15] At Wrestle Kingdom 11, Tanahashi unsuccessfully challenged Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.[16][17]

On January 5, 2017, the day after Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome, Tanahashi teamed with Ryusuke Taguchi and Manabu Nakanishi to defeat Los Ingobernables de Japon (Bushi, Evil and Sanada to win the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship.[18] Shortly afterwards, the group became known as "Taguchi Japan", while adding Elgin, David Finlay, Dragon Lee and Kushida as members.[1][19] They lost the title back to L.I.J. on February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka, while Elgin unsuccessfully challenged Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.[20][21] On March 6 at NJPW's 45th anniversary event, Taguchi unsuccessfully challenged Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.[22] Over the following month, Taguchi Japan expanded to also include Juice Robinson and Ricochet.[23] On April 4, Taguchi, Ricochet and Tanahashi defeated L.I.J. to bring the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship back to Taguchi Japan.[24] On April 29 at Wrestling Toyonokuni 2017, members of Taguchi Japan and L.I.J. faced off two title matches, which were both won by L.I.J. with Hiromu Takahashi retaining the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Ricochet and Tetsuya Naito retaining the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Juice Robinson.[25] On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2017, Taguchi Japan lost the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship back to L.I.J.[26] Also in May, Satoshi Kojima joined Taguchi Japan as a replacement for an injured Hiroshi Tanahashi.[27] On June 3, Kushida defeated Will Ospreay in the finals to win his second Best of the Super Juniors. On June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, Kushida defeated Hiromu Takahashi to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the fifth time. Later that same event, Tanahashi defeated Tetsuya Naito to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.[28] As part of Taguchi Japan, Taguchi and Ricochet formed a tag team named "Funky Future",[29] defeating The Young Bucks for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on August 13.[30] On October 9 at King of Pro-Wrestling, Funky Future lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh), while Kushida lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to Will Ospreay. Ricochet blamed himself for Funky Future's loss and resigned not only from Taguchi Japan, but NJPW altogether immediately following the match.[31]

Taguchi Japan's struggles continued into early 2018. At Wrestle Kingdom 12 on January 4, Taguchi and Robinson teamed with Togi Makabe in an attempt to recapture the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship as part of a five-team gauntlet match. Taguchi Japan was the fourth team to enter the match, but was quickly eliminated by eventual winners CHAOS when Toru Yano managed to roll up Taguchi for a pinfall. Kushida was also unsuccessful in winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in a four-way match, losing to Will Ospreay. However Tanahashi was successful in defending the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Jay White. The following day at New Year Dash, Taguchi, Kushida, Robinson, Finlay, and Kota Ibushi lost a 10-man tag team match to Bullet Club. At The New Beginning in Sapporo Taguchi was unsuccessful in challenging for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship with Makabe and Toa Henare as his partners. The group suffered its biggest loss to date that same night when Tanahashi lost the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to Minoru Suzuki.

The stable's luck took a downward spiral in the following months, with Tanahashi, Robinson and Elgin failing to win the New Japan Cup.[32] At Sakura Genesis 2018 Tanahashi, Robinson and Finlay defeated Chaos members NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto, IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Jay White and Yoshi-Hashi. Later in the night, Tanahashi would confront IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada after Okada defeated Zack Sabre Jr. to tie Tanahashi's record for most successful title defenses with 11, indicating a potential title match in the near future. That same night IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay would call out Kushida to be his next challenger at Wrestling Dontaku. Taguchi and Makabe were once again unsuccessful in winning the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, this time Elgin as their partner.

In the build-up to the Wrestling Dontaku shows, Finlay challenged Jay White for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship while Robinson challenged Hirooki Goto for his NEVER Openweight Championship. Both were unsuccessful in their matches. On the second night of Wrestling Dontaku, Tanahashi was unsuccessful in winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and in the process having his record of most successful title defences in one reign broken, as Okada defended the championship successfully for the 12th time. Kushida was also unsuccessful in winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship from Will Ospreay. Four members of Taguchi Japan would enter 2018 Best of the Super Juniors, with Kushida, Taguchi, Dragon Lee and ACH unsuccessful in the tournament.

The group's success began to turn a month later at Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall when Finlay and Robinson teamed again to defeat Jay White and Yoshi-Hashi in a tag team match, with Robinson pinning White to set him up as White's next challenger for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship. Later on in the night Michael Elgin defeated NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto and Taichi in a three-way match to win the title. Although just over a week later Elgin lost the title back to Goto in a singles match. The following month at the G1 Special in San Francisco, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kushida were defeated by Bullet Club members Hangman Page and Marty Scurll in a tag team match, while Dragon Lee was defeated by new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi. However Juice Robinson would score the biggest win of his career by defeating Jay White to win the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship.

That same month, Elgin, Makabe, Robinson and Tanahashi would each enter the G1 Climax, with Elgin, Makabe and Tanahashi competing in Block A and Robinson competing in Block B. Elgin, Makabe and Robinson would be unsuccessful in the tournament, scoring only three wins each, with Tanahashi defeating Makabe in their head to head match while Elgin would lose to both Makabe and Tanahashi. However Tanahashi would go on to win his third G1 Climax, defeating Kota Ibushi in the final and setting the record for most points in the twenty-man tournament format with fifteen points. On the same night of the G1 Climax final, Robinson would be attacked by Cody after losing a tag team match to him, marking himself as Robinson's first challenger to the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, who he would lose the title to. At Wrestle Kingdom 13, Kushida would lose his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, while Robinson would regain the IWGP United States Championship and Tanahashi winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in the main event. On January 7, 2019 Kushida announced he would be leaving New Japan Pro-Wrestling.[33] On January 30 at Road to The New Beginning, the team of Taguchi, Toru Yano, and Togi Makabe defeated Bullet Club members Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, and Taiji Ishimori to capture the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship.