NJPW The New Beginning tour reaches it’s final stop! Double gold challenge is the main event, with the extreme murder match in the semi-main!
Can SANADA move himself up into legitimate contender territory? Does KENTA ruin Naito’s dream? Will Moxley or Suzuki die?
All important questions, let’s see what happens!
Ratings:
- Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Manabu Nakanishi vs Tomoaki Honma, Ryusuke Taguchi, Toa Henare & Togi Makabe: Kojima wins via Cozy Lariat @7:10 – ** ½
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Roppongi 3k (SHO & YOH) (c) vs El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru: Roppongi 3k retain via Strong X @16:20 – *** ¾
- David Finlay, Juice Robinson, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi vs Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga, Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi w/Pieter: Tanahashi wins via Roll-Up @10:50 – ***
- Taichi w/Miho Abe & Zack Sabre Jr vs Will Ospreay & Kazuchika Okada: Okada wins via Rainmaker @11:50 – *** ¼
- SANADA vs Jay White: White wins via Blade Runner @21:50 – *** ½
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs Ryu Lee: Hiromu retains via Time Bomb @23:55 – **** ¾
- IWGP United States Championship: Minoru Suzuki vs Jon Moxley (c): Moxley retains via Death Rider @17:15 – ****
- IWGP Intercontinental & Heavyweight Championship: Tetsuya Naito (c) vs KENTA: Naito retains via Destino @35:50 – *** ½
Analysis:
Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Manabu Nakanishi vs Tomoaki Honma, Ryusuke Taguchi, Toa Henare & Togi Makabe – This match is Nakanishi’s final match in Osaka as he continues his retirement tour, which ends at the 22nd event. Nakanishi starts off against Taguchi and thanks to the size disparity, there’s a bit of comedy. The hot tag later event goes to Nakanishi for a Quadruple Submission Spot. Kojima had the Dragon Sleeper in, Tenzan with the Anaconda Vice, Nagata with the Nagata Lock 2 and Nakanishi with his signature Argentine Backbreaker. It was a nice pop spot for the crowd to see the veterans with the advantage, all shining together. Kojima clashed with Honma for the finishing sequence, and the Cozy Lariat gives the Third Generation team the victory.
Nakanishi takes the mic to a round of applause and support. He tells them he started in Osaka, and he was terrible, but he’s happy that he was able to wrestle there one more time. Well beyond the ability of putting on stellar matches but, Nakanishi’s longevity and legacy has endeared him to the fans.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Roppongi 3k (SHO & YOH) (c) vs El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru – The story here was that the Suzuki-Gun duo injured SHO’s left leg, so there was a giant bullseye on the leg, technically handicapping the champions. SHO did a great job telling the story for the Junior Tag League after Taiji and ELP beat him up. So let’s see if lightning strikes twice.
Kanemaru hunted for SHO’s leg early, and worked him over to the outside. Two chairshots to the leg, left SHO nearly for dead in the middle of the crowd. He barely beats the 20 count, but the heels work him for most of the match. Figure Four Leglocks, Modified Stretch Mufflers, just great ground work, all focusing on the injury.
The match swung a bit when Kanearu went for Deep Impact, but didn’t get all of it, so SHO kicked out. YOH came in, stifled the Suzuki-Gun gameplan and made some great saves. Kanemaru tried for the Satori Surprise, but SHO blocked it and German Suplexed the whiskey out of his body. Strong X looks to be something they’re trying to get over as a new finish, and it was all great. Really good match especially, for a second match.
Ryusuke Taguchi comes out, and basically asks Rocky if he’s a manager or a wrestler. After appealing to Rocky’s ego, Taguchi passed the ball to Rocky for him to decide who he’s siding with. Rocky picks Taguchi, and we will have the Mega Coaches versus Roppongi 3k. Nice development.
David Finlay, Juice Robinson, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi vs Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga, Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi w/Pieter – You know, the thing that may get the most discussion in this match is…Tanahashi’s hair. I really hope his daughter did his hair or maybe he lost a bet, because it reminds me of Robin Sparkles from How I Met Your Mother. Maybe Tana wants to go to the mall?
As for the match, it’s nice to see Kota has recovered from his illness and he looked pretty great. Juice and Finlay put up a decent showing with Finlay taking the brunt of the heavy lifting. Jado got involved a few times with the Kendo Stick, but Tanahashi managed to halt G.o.D.’s attempts at Magic Killer and get a cheeky roll-up with a bit extra leverage by laying on the legs.
Announcements after the match about a few G1 Climax 30 dates, but for American fans, August 22,2020, WRESTLE DYNASTY in Madison Square Garden!
Taichi w/Miho Abe & Zack Sabre Jr vs Will Ospreay & Kazuchika Okada – We know the story between these four during The New Beginning tour. Only extra wrinkle is since Ospreay pinned Sabre during a Road to tag match after the initial title loss. So RevPro’s Valentine’s Day show will have a rematch.
As for the match, it was pretty solid with the correct players pairing off. Taichi seemed to lean into his heel persona a little more, so I’d really like to see more Dangerous T but; this match did what it was supposed to. Ospreay and Sabre looked pretty even, Okada still above Taichi, but Taichi got some good shots in. Fun match.
SANADA vs Jay White – We know how SANADA earned this special singles match with a pinfall victory over Jay during New Year Dash; and we got to see the build after Fantastica Mania. So Jay needs to stave off SANADA to remind him of the difference in their perceived levels.
SANADA got handled early on in the match, and Gedo interfered quite a bit. I like the fact that some of the interference was callbacks to previous matches on how SANADA kept Gedo in check, but there was just entirely too much Gedo. Some of the transitions of the match were sloppy, capped off with the Shiranui float over into the Skull End, that turned into a Shiranui attempt and Jay White just fell down.
Jay winning the match is fine, since SANADA is very popular with fans and this is obviously leading to bigger things for SANADA’s character. I just wish it was a better match with a little less Gedo meddling.
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