Leave us your feedback to today’s New Beginning in Osaka card.
Wai and I will have a POST Show up Sunday night for Patrons.
*Tetsuya Naito vs. KENTA for the Double championship
*Jon Moxley vs. Minoru Suzuki for the IWGP United States title
*Hiromu Takahashi vs. Ryu Lee for the IWGP junior heavyweight title
*Jay White vs. Sanada
*Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi
*Guerrillas of Destiny, Yujiro & Chase Owens vs. Juice Robinson, David Finlay, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi
*Roppongi 3K vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru for the IWGP junior heavyweight tag titles
*Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Toa Henare & Ryusuke Taguchi
Top to bottom entertaining card. I felt sorry for Sanada/White, as despite being technically sound, it didn’t live up to the pressures of a New Japan singles match.
Lee/Takahashi was the brilliant frightening match it was always going to be, the chop battle was incredible, and I’m glad they merely teased the Phoenix Plex rather than actually do it.
Moxl/Suzuki was a blast, a total character brawl and Suzuki was extra Suzuki which was a treat. ZSJ vs Mox is going to be a huge opportunity for Moxley to show a side of himself that we’ve yet to ever see in WWE, AEW or NJPW. I can’t wait.
What can be said about Naito/KENTA other than Gedo is a genius. The amount of heat during just KENTA’s entrance was next level for a New Japan crowd. The WK attack, the Dash attack, and KENTA’s incredible character work made him into such a massive heel that he barely had to do anything in the match. This was a masterclass on old school simplicity, it went thirty but felt 15. I think this could be a template for Naito’s title run, move away from the Okada big match style, and instead tell smart and simple in ring character dramas. Side note, special prize to Bushi for trying! Can’t wait for Hiromu vs Naito.
Great show. Really enjoyed Moxley vs. Suzuki, Hiromu vs. Ryu Lee, the Jr. Tag title match and SANADA vs. White.
Was not into the main event. I’m a big fan of both KENTA and Naito but things didn’t click here especially for how long they ended up going. KENTA deserves credit for how much heel heat he can generate but in the end I felt the match dragged. Not sure I’d this is a hot take but I’d take Okada vs. Taichi from last week over this match if we had to choose recent matches that went over 30 minutes.
Jalen from Pickering,
This felt like a big show, and it delivered. Solid undercard like always.
Sanada/White wasn’t quite at the level of hoped for, Hiromu and Lee are as crazy as ever, Mox/Suzuki was everything we could’ve hoped for, and the main event did it’s job (could’ve been 5 minutes shorter).
The future looks bright and interesting for basically every title , and they’ve already got me looking towards the anniversary show and New Japan Cup. 8/10
I watched the show live and it certainly lived up to expectations, especially the main three matches.
Hiromu Versus Lee was high risk and fast paced, although I must admit I did wince a few times with the attacks on Hiromu’s neck.
Moxley Versus Suzuki was everything I expected from when it was announced. Just two men not giving a F about the rules trying to out do one another. Although I didn’t expect yet another Moxley win.
Naito Versus KENTA was amazing, even if it took a little while to start to feel like a big match. But I didn’t anticipate so much blood in this match.
The announcement of “Naito Versus Hiromu” for the anniversary show has me excited for the traditional Champion Versus Champion match for the first time in a long time.
10/10 Show
QUESTIONS:
Do you expect Moxley to lose the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship before the next Madison Square Garden show, seeing as he still can’t wrestle for NJPW in the US.
How long do you think Naito will continue to defend both championships in a single match, at some point he’s losing the Intercontinental Championship right?
