Taguchi made it through the match, but treatment did not kick in for six months.
There’s a feature piece on Ryusuke Taguchi that was published by the outlet ‘BEST T!MES.’ They documented his start in New Japan Pro-Wrestling and he shared that there were several occasions when he was supposed to make his in-ring debut earlier than he did.
While preparing for his introduction to the audience, he suffered a neck injury that ended up being an out of place neck bone. Due to the pain, Taguchi had to keep postponing his debut. Eventually, it got to a point where NJPW told him he’d either have to debut or quit.
I was supposed to debut with Yoshitatsu, but when we were training to strengthen my neck, I felt a crack. Even then, I was thinking, this is not good. The next day, I was in charge of making chanko, but I felt sick halfway through and threw up in the toilet.
At times, the pain was so excruciating that Taguchi could not stand. The two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion shared that he woke up on the day of his scheduled debut and did not feel any pain. Around noon that day, a headache began to develop and gradually got worse .
He said he went through that match ‘prepared to die’ and does not remember anything from it other than his head hurting.
‘If you can’t make your debut, you’ll have to quit.’
When I woke up that morning, I felt no pain. When the company asked me if I was okay, I said, ‘I’ll do it,’ but around noon, I started getting a headache and it got worse. I said I was OK, but now I can’t say I can’t do it. So I went into the ring prepared to die. All I remember about my debut match is that my head hurt.
It was not until six months later that his treatment began relieving him of the headaches he was experiencing from the injury.
Taguchi is in the midst of his 22nd year with New Japan.
