We continue our countdown to Jyushin Thunder Liger’s retirement.
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Wrestle Kingdom 14 night 1: January 4 tickets!
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Jyushin Thunder Liger’s 2008 saw he and Legend start strong, as the team of Liger, Riki Choshu, Masahiro Chono, Tatsumi Fujinami and AKIRA easily saw off the ‘Voodoo Bash Heel’ group comprising Liger’s former CTU partners in Jado and Gedo (now part of Togi Makabe’s Great Bash Heel) and from AJPW’s Voodoo Murders, ‘Brother’ YASSHI, TARU and Shuji Kondo.
In a time where a lot of shifts were taking place in the NJPW faction lineup, GBH had emerged as strong forces in NJPW, and were clashing regularly not just with Legend, but new faction RISE, headed up by Shinsuke Nakamura and consisting of more of Liger’s former CTU allies. Prince Devitt and Minoru were two such men, and Liger would show Legend’s experience edge when he and AKIRA defeated the duo for Liger’s fifth IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship.
As young blood showed their potential, Liger would be there to stop anyone getting overly arrogant, as was the case in May, when he defeated a Young Lion by the name of Kazuchika Okada. After Okada impressed Liger during his tour of Toryumon Canada, the masked legend invited the future Rainmaker to NJPW, but he would have a long road to the top.
