Name(s) Golden☆Lovers Disbanded October 26, 2014 Promotions DDT
NJPW | Debut January 2009 Years active 2009–2014 | |
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Members Kenny Omega
Kota Ibushi | ||
Golden☆Lovers (ゴールデン☆ラヴァーズ, Gōruden☆Ravāzu) was the professional wrestling tag team of Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi. The team was formed in January 2009 in the Japanese DDT Pro-Wrestling promotion, where, over the next five years, they won the KO-D Tag Team Championship on two occasions. The team also made appearances for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), where they won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship once. The team disbanded when Omega left DDT in October 2014.
Contents
History
In July 2008, Canadian wrestler Kenny Omega started his first Japanese tour with the DDT Pro-Wrestling promotion, where he quickly became friends with Kota Ibushi, with the two forming a tag team named "Golden☆Lovers" in January 2009. On January 24, Ibushi and Omega defeated Harashima and Toru Owashi to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship for the first time. After one successful defense, they lost the title to Francesco Togo and Piza Michinoku on May 10. Over the following years, Omega and Ibushi established themselves as one of the top tag teams on the Japanese independent circuit.
On January 31, 2010, the Golden☆Lovers made their debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), defeating Gedo and Jado by referee stoppage, when Jado was legitimately injured. On October 11 at NJPW's Destruction '10 event, the Golden☆Lovers defeated Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. The match was later named the 2010 Match of the Year by Tokyo Sports, becoming the first junior heavyweight tag team match in history to win the award. After making successful title defenses against Apollo 55 and the team of Gedo and Jado, with both matches taking place back in DDT, Ibushi and Omega lost the title back to Apollo 55 on January 23, 2011, during NJPW's Fantastica Mania 2011 weekend. The Golden☆Lovers received a rematch for the title on August 14, but were again defeated by Apollo 55.
Meanwhile in DDT, Ibushi and Omega came together with Gota Ihashi to form the Golden☆Rendezvous～ stable, with the three holding the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship from May 26 to June 23, 2013. On January 26, 2014, the Golden☆Lovers won the KO-D Tag Team Championship for the second time by defeating reigning champions Yankii Nichokenju (Isami Kodaka and Yuko Miyamoto) and the team of Konosuke Takeshita and Tetsuya Endo in a three-way match. On April 12, Ibushi and Omega became double champions, when the two, along with the newest member of the Golden☆Rendezvous～ stable, Daisuke Sasaki, defeated Team Drift (Keisuke Ishii, Shigehiro Irie and Soma Takao) for the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship. The trio's reign lasted until May 4, when they were defeated by Shuten-dōji (Kudo, Masa Takanashi and Yukio Sakaguchi) in their second defense. Ibushi and Omega continued holding the KO-D Tag Team Championship until September 28, 2014, when they were defeated by Konosuke Takeshita and Tetsuya Endo.
On October 3, 2014, Omega announced he was leaving DDT and signing with NJPW, where Ibushi was already a semi-regular. However, with Ibushi having recently moved to NJPW's heavyweight division, Omega stated that the Golden☆Lovers were done as a tag team due to him wanting to remain in the junior heavyweight division. The Golden☆Lovers wrestled their final match together on October 26, 2014, when they defeated Danshoku Dino and Konosuke Takeshita in Omega's DDT farewell match.