It's been a rough couple of months for poor New Japan. They've lost Cody, the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, they're losing KUSHIDA, they lost Kitamura, they're losing Jericho... sort of. See... the only ones I can see them not getting to work with (if the negotiations go well) would be Kushida (who is going to WWE) and Kitamura (who is still kind of recovering from his accident). Everyone else is in AEW, which I think will probably be pretty chill about cooperation.
So it's time for the New Beginning Pay Per View in Osaka, which has an incredible crowd packing the venue!
 |
| Unfortunately, there aren't many photos out of these matches, so bear with me! |
Okay, so here's the thing about this card - it's the least familiar card I've ever seen! Since most of the big names I've been following have changed companies (and I'm a little concerned about KUSHIDA, since the US Government shutdown has already presented major challenges to Japanese wrestlers trying to come work in the US...)
The show has English commentary provided by Don Callis (who I believe mostly works with Impact these days, so there could be hope for more cooperation between NJPW & Impact?) and Kevin Kelly, who have a fantastic rapport and both give excellent commentary, so that was great!
As for the actual card itself, it was a fun one!
We opened with a six-man tag match between the old guard & Suzuki Gun. Jushin Thunder Liger, Satoshi Kojima (aka leader of the Bread Club), and Hiroyoshi Tenzan fought off Takashi Iizuka (crazy man with a metal karate chop hand), TAKA Michinoku (the same one you may remember from WWE, and just as good today as then), and the leader of Suzuki Gun himself, Minoru Suzuki. This match was great! You wouldn't expect a match where the average age of the participants is 49 (oldest being 54 [Liger]) to be great, but it was. I haven't been keeping up, so I don't quite understand what's going on between Tenzan & Iizuka, but that's one of the big benefits of having a lot of major stars leave a company.
Suddenly, interesting storylines start popping up everywhere!
After the six man tag (which Liger, Kojima, & Tenzan won), there was a tag match between two of the coolest members of Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA & EVIL) broke in some of the new generation (in New Japan, they call them Young Lions, and it's adorable. Ayato Yoshida and Shota Umino impressed the heck out of me. I think they'll be going on excursion soon - that's when New Japan sends their younger wrestlers out into the world to learn from other places. Last time they sent Young Lions on excursion, a sweet New Zealand Young Lion left and came back as the Switchblade Jay White, so I am super stoked to see who Ayato & Shota come back as!
There was another six-man-tag next, which was great. It was more Los Ingobernables de Japon vs more Suzuki Gun. Shingo Takagi is a beast in the ring, and paired with BUSHI (who came out in a metal as heck Venom mask with a tiny skull on its tongue) and Tetsuya Naito, everyone watching the PPV with me knew it was going to be a brutal and amazing match.
Even though the Suzuki Gun team was their low-grade guys. I'm just not going to like Taichi, guys. Even putting him with the incredible El Desperado and the often-intoxicated Kanemaru isn't going to improve my opinion of me. Miho Abe, his valet, can't improve my mood towards him, which means nothing ever will. Ugh.
To no one's surprise, Los Ingobernables smoked Suzuki Gun, despite Kanemaru & El Desperado's best efforts. Poor Despy & Kanemaru.
Speaking of low-tier teams! CHAOS & Bullet Club sent their worst to fight next. I don't hate Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi like my friends seem to, but Owens was not even on his C-game during this match, executing the laziest moves I've ever seen in the ring! Yujiro was... well, he was Yujiro. The best thing about him is his valet, though, and Pieter (whose name they misspelled in the graphics) was, at least, on her A-Game. She always is, though, so that's fun!
If Pieter and Abe ever decided to give wrestling a go, it would be a match that sold out stadiums. The cutesy goth girl vs the grown woman who has total control over herself & her body. If Abe won we'd riot.
Seriously, Pieter runs her own gym. I would never dare mess with her!
Anywho, yeah, CHAOS sent out their own not-so-fantastic guys, but they used to be better, so I forgive them. Tomoaki Honma still probably shouldn't be wrestling after his trademark Kokeshi Drop (a deadfall headbutt from the top rope) gave him a blood clot a couple years ago, but here he is, still fighting despite looking way older than his 42 years. His partner, YOSHI-HASHI, also had a health scare last year, ending up with his nose broken so badly that it looks like he had to have reconstructive surgery. The end result is that he now gives me the Uncanny Valley feeling whenever I look at him. Whatever. I'm just glad he's okay. And that they've changed his trunks so they no longer say "Loose Explosion" over his backside. And that his nickname is better (he's the Head-Hunter, now).
It was not a great match, sadly, but we got Pieter, so that's what counts :P
GOD (Guerillas of Destiny) came on next, with Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa taking on Togi Makabe & Toru Yano. It was a good match. For a comedy wrestler, Yano still works well with the Tongans, letting them sell both their power and fury while he takes a lot of the punishment off of Makabe, who probably needs the break, since he's a tough dude and takes a lot of beatings in the ring. GOD beat Makabe & Yano, but that's okay, since I'm sure Yano then took Makabe out for
curry.
I don't know about you guys but at this point, I was itching for singles competition. Thankfully, that's exactly what the last three matches were!
The New Bone Soldier, Tiaji Ishimori, is a total beast of a man. He's the kind of guy who, at first glance, looks too baby-faced to be a threat. Then you see his eyes. And you look away. Because he is a crazy, scary dude. Of course, when you look away from the crazy eyes, you probably end up staring at his ultra-ripped body, so that's terrifyingly intimidating too. Oh, and don't forget that he's usually wearing a messed-up-looking demon skull mask. That's not exactly a recipe for comfort, yeah?
Who do you send such a monster against?
You send him against the comedy wrestler whose moveset is butt-based.
Yes. Ryusuke Taguchi, who has one of the funniest personas in NJPW, was put up against a human wrecking machine, and he held his own for the most part. I mean, It's easy to forget that Taguchi, for all that he dresses in silly costumes and is a funny guy is also a dangerously accomplished wrestler in his own right. Hip attacks notwithstanding, Taguchi is a fantastic submission wrestler, and he's taken Ishimori down with a truly brutal ankle lock before, so this was a truly competitive match!
With the IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship on the line, Ishimori escaped from one of the gnarliest ankle/knee-based submissions I've ever seen and powered his way to an excruciating-looking victory against Taguchi. It was an awesome match and probably my favorite of the night!
That match had barely concluded when the next began, and boy, what a match it was!
Now, Okada isn't top dog anymore, so he's not in the main event. Instead, he's taking on the Rogue General of the Bullet Club OGs: Bad Luck Fale. Uh. For comparison, Okada is 6'3" (191cm) and 236lb (107kg) whereas Bad Luck Fale is 6'4" (193cm) and 344lb (156kg). In short, These are two giants, one of whom is nearly 1.5 times as heavy as the other, trying to throw each other around the ring. There were a few heart-stopping moments where it didn't look like Okada was going to make the full rotation and land on his back after being thrown around a bit, but fortunately, there were no major injuries in this match. It just
looked like people were going to die. Seriously, though, this was a good, terrifying match, and if WWE really wants to hire giants, they should do so with the knowledge that two tall guys fighting can be really scary if one of them is huge around the shoulders and the other one has legs for days.
This was honestly probably my second favorite match.
My third favorite match was the absolute massacre that was Tanahashi vs Jay White - the last match of the night.
Hiroshi Tanahashi has been loyal to New Japan, and in return, they have showered him with championships. In a lot of ways, he's the John Cena of NJPW, except, you know, he can really wrestle really well, despite the fact that his knees are held together with duct tape and wishes right now. Regardless, he's been holding onto Kenny's title since Wrestle Kingdom last month, and now Jay White wants it.
This match was brutal. Jay White has the best face in wrestling, I have to say, because it conveys absolute disdain for everyone, ally or foe (because Jay White has no friends, they're a burden). He's the wrathful Sith Lord challenging Jedi Knight Tanahashi and trying to take everything for himself. He is greed. He is power. He is pure, sinister hatred. He seethes in the ring, every move designed to cause pain, and he delights in taking apart Tanahashi in front of his devoted fans. Jay absolutely destroys Tanahashi in this match, sweeping the championship away from him.
Now, that isn't to say that Tanahashi doesn't fight back. He does. He fights with all of his heart. He fights for the fans. He fights for the honor of the company that has been so good to him. He fights for goodness and all that is light.
And he is ruined by one angry Kiwi.
It's a fantastic match and tells a fantastic story, and White's self-centered, hateful promo at the end is magic in its own right, especially since you can tell that the crowd isn't really sure what he's saying. They recognize his passion, though. Oh, how they'll learn to hate him.
I look forward to seeing Jay take on all comers and either eventually get taught humility by someone (probably Ibushi, who surprised everyone early in the PPV by coming out and saying that he'd be staying with NJPW) or just destroy everything and everyone in sight. Either way, we're in for a fun ride here!
I think that'll about do it for me today. This blog is late due to a fantastic migraine that I've had since I woke up, but I'm doing better now.
Go Enjoy
Something!
FC
