Ibushi left November behind on a rather disappointing note, losing his Openweight title to Shuji Ishikawa. He and Michael Nakazawa and another coworker friend go out for a ‘sad celebration’ afterward. But even without his title, he would have an extremely busy month in December, wrestling seven matches for both DDT and New Japan.
A few days after the sad celebration hangout, Ibushi joins a bunch of other wrestlers from both DDT and All Japan promotions at a bar for a multi course meal.
December 6th Ibushi is in a tag match at Ginza Now 12.06 with Gota Ihashi. There is not a lot of info on this match, other than they were defeated by Keisuke Ishii and Michael Nakazawa.
On the 12th he is in a shopping mall match, where the wrestlers find themselves on multiple levels of the mall, riding the escalator and slow-chasing each other around some confused shoppers. Ibushi winds up hanging off the wall near an escalator, because, Ibushi.
After the show is over, the wrestlers pose for some pictures for reporters, then huddle around a special machine (that seemingly no longer exists, yes I looked it up to find out) that supposedly reads your aura and provides a report. You know, one of those weird things you find yourself doing in a large mall. The report for Ibushi said he is “noted for his strong sense of responsibility and kindness.” Aw, that’s nice. I’ll go out on a limb and say probably accurate too.
The next day he wrestles at Hakata Starlanes in Fukuoka, a venue that has since closed.
In his usual fashion, Ibushi closes out the show with a promo read from a piece of paper, only this time when he looks for his promo stashed in his boot he can’t find it. Nakazawa pulls a piece of paper out of his tights (yum) and gives it to Ibushi, who reads in English, “I love Hakata very much. I love Motsu-Nabe very much. My hobby is playing games and having sex….”
Nakazawa, standing ringside, receives a lecture from Referee Matsui for making the Golden Star read that as his promo.
DDT Referee Matsui attends the annual Tokyo Sports Awards ceremony with Ibushi, President Dai, and Yoshihiko. Ibushi won a wrestling skills award and was there, looking dapper in a suit, to receive it.
Yoshihiko, though looking especially creepy in formalwear, received more favorable reactions from attendees this year. Per Matsui, “The people around me looked at Yoshihiko more warmly than I expected, so I realized that the times are changing.”
Across the world in New York, Omega participated in ROH’s Final Battle show on the 19th, wrestling Claudio Castagnoli, Rhett Titus and Colt Cabana.
That same day, Ibushi is spotted at Midbreath Gym, mixing up a pre-workout beverage at the recommendation/urging of some of the gym employees. They probably sell the stuff there.
He also wrestled a DDT show in a gymnasium as part of the main event six-man tag match.
12/20 is Dotonbori Story, the J-CUP Pre-Semi-Finals with Danshoku Dino vs Kota Ibushi. Of course, Dino gets gropey throughout the match. Ibushi defeats him however, and Nakazawa asks what his future plan going into the New Japan J-Cup tournament are, to which Ibushi simply says “I’ll do my best” and closes the show with a series of backflips in the center of the ring.
Though Ibushi does his best, he is unable to pin his tournament opponent Gedo, and faces a loss in the tournament’s first round.
He fairs better the next day, in a team with AKIRA, Jushin Thunder Liger, and Taichi, but it doesn’t really make up for his singles competition loss to Gedo.
On the 25th Ibushi was at the 4th Akiba Pro-Wrestling Tournament, dressed like a maid, in front of 612 spectators. I am unsure whether he actually wrestled in that getup, or just participated in some antics. I’m guessing antics.
December 27th Kenny is able to make it back to Japan to rejoin Ibushi for Nevermind, in a tag match against Munenori Sawa and Sanshiro Takagi.
After the show, Takagi grabs a mic and welcomes Kenny back, then asks Ibushi if he was frustrated with his loss at the New Japan show for the J Cup. Ibushi replies, “I lost. I’m so disappointed. I’m also injured. I’m frustrated. It’s frustrating. But I will definitely give it back to New Japan. That’s all there is to it. I will do my best.”
Two days later, Kenny visits Midbreath Gym before the DDT show later that evening. Both Nakazawa and someone from the gym snap pics of him with AKIRA and Nanae Takahashi, a wrestler from All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Sun.
The DDT show for that evening features the Golden Lovers against Masashi Takeda and Yuko Miyamoto. Omega and Ibushi give a little promo in the end, looking exhausted but cute and genuine, stating they’re the best tag team in the world, and this is just the beginning for them. They’re not wrong.
December 31st, the Golden lovers are in a Four Way Falls Count Anywhere Thunder Fire Street Fight (is that name long enough?) that spills out into the audience seating area. If you are a Golden Lovers fan, you have seen the clip from the end of this match, where the two men are forced to kiss by Dino, but then choose to kiss each other again. I’ve never seen the full match, only this ending. It is not found on DDT’s site.
And that is how we end this month in Golden Lovers history, with a kiss!
Kenny-Omega.com 
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