Taichi

From Black Saint to Holy Emperor, Taichi has run the gamut of reviled coward to respected fighter, sometimes switching between the two in the span of one match. Suzuki-Gun's master manipulator, Taichi is a force to be strongly reckoned with. After initially training under the legendary Toshiaki Kawada in All Japan, Taichi joined NJPW in 2006 as a junior heavyweight. After two IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship reigns, Taichi eventually transitioned to the heavyweight ranks, where he won the NEVER Openweight Championship twice, and through a feud with contemporary Tomohiro Ishii, gained a hard hitting edge to his in-ring style. Taichi arguably had his best career year to date in 2020. Gaining singles wins over Kota Ibushi and Hiroshi Tanahashi, he then teamed with Zack Sabre Junior to beat both men and lift the IWGP Tag Team Championships at Dominion. Defending those titles again at Summer Struggle, the still young Dangerous Tekkers team quickly became one of the most respected in all of NJPW. When they lost their titles in controversial form to the Guerrillas of Destiny, Taichi's comradeship with ZSJ only deepened as they seek to reach the tag team summit once more. The Holy Emperor would battle Tama Tonga in a brutal ladder match at Dontaku, and built on that momentum, recovering from a bout with COVID-19 to capture the IWGP tag Team titles for a second time with Zack on the Road to Dominion on June 1.