NJPW: The New Beginning Osaka Review

Hi guys,

We've finally come to the end of The New Beginning Tour where we ended the crazy tour in Osaka with a special singles match and two huge title matches for both the IWGP Jr Heavyweight and IWGP Heavyweight title.

If anyone missed my last post reviewing the Sapporo leg of the tour, you can see it here https://wrestling-chatter.blogspot.com/2019/02/njpw-new-beginning-sapporo-review.html. The second leg of the New Beginning Tour paved the way for The New Beginning in Osaka on 11th February which included Taguchi challenging Taiji Ishimori for the IWGP Jr Heavyweight title (which was made even more exciting after Taguchi submitted Ishimori to win the NEVER openweight 6-man tag belts) and Jay White challenging Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight belt (which I booked the day off specifically for). In this leg of the tour, there was only one show that was streamed on the Road to Osaka but it was a show with a jam packed card from start to end.

Show one on Saturday was quite short in terms of number of matches, considering that it was the only show before the culmination of the new Beginning tour on Monday. However, that didn't stop it from being an amazing show which ended with a 10 man elimination match. The first half started with a few young lion matches which saw Shota Umino and Yoshida get the win, with a beautiful fisherman suplex with a bridge, over Yota Tsuji who was teaming with veteran Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Then Yoshi Hashi gained a teeny weeny bit of momentum for the year by beating Ren Narita (which is a huge thing for Yoshi Hashi, but not huge in the grand scheme of things because Narita is still a young lion). We then saw Chase Owens and Yujiro proving that they shouldn't have even been overlooked by beating Toa Henare and Tomoaki Honma in a really good match of pure wrestling with some great tag team chemistry on both sides.



By the second half, we got into the more serious matches in the aftermath of Sapporo with Evil/ Sanada and Bushi getting the win of Minoru Suzuki, Kanemaru and El Desperado. Although it seemed obvious that LIJ was going to win with 2 heavyweight and 1 jr against 1 heavyweight and 2 jrs, but it was as expected a really brutal match and you could definitely see the hatred growing between the two masked men. It seems more and more likely that we're seeing a mask v mask match very soon. Then we had Naito teaming for the first time alone with Shingo Takagi against Taichi and TAKA. What's crazy is that Takagi had the upper hand throughout the entire match to eventually get the pin over TAKA. It was scary how strong and dominant Shingo is and I forgot that he was meant to be a Jr. With LIJ beating Suzuki Gun in both matches, what's next for them? The show ended with a beautifully chaotic 10 man elimination match between Bullet Club and the main Unit/ Chaos hybrid which was literally full to the brim of action. We saw Tama Tonga snap out of being the Good Guy by literally doing a Chuckie T and going crazy with a kendo stick on poor Yano. Taguchi continue to try and psych Ishimori out with the Sailor boys dance. Then, after 30 minutes of Chaos *literally* Tanahashi threw Jay over the rope with inches between them to give the babyface team the victory. What was so exciting about this was that Tanahashi and Jay both had equal momentum going into their match on Monday, so it was anyone's game!

So, Monday came (I am literally just writing this as the show finishes, even though I'm publishing it on Tuesday) and really the show was anyone's game. We had some really good starting matches with the lead up to Takashi Iizka's retirement looming, the young lions Shota and Yoshida putting up an amazing and Bullet Club dominance. After the third match, we had Roppingi 3k (Sho and Yoh) come out to confront Shingo and Bushi by challenging for the IWGP Jr tag titles. What was interesting about this is how it all happened, very sneakily and with a flurry of crowd boo's. This makes me think that 1, Rocky Romero sneaky style is definitely something influencing 3k and 2, could this be a heel turn for the boys which although would be shocking for Yoh, might not seem all that odd for Sho who's always been the powerhouse and slightly rogue. I also can't forget a huge moment with Kota Ibushi coming out to the ring and letting us fans know that he's staying in NJPW, despite the rumours, and that the NJPW Cup is firmly in his sights. I know it might seem like quite a short summary for some amazing matches, but this show was all about the final 3 matches and what matches they were, I mean I'm still on like this sort of high and who knows how long it will last!

We then got onto the 3 main events of the night. We started off with Taiji Ishimori defending his IWGP Jr title against the Funky Weapon Taguchi and it seemed as if we had the loveable idiot Taguchi when he came out with overalls doing the Sailor Boys dance. However, after Ishimori countered that with his own rendition of the dance, the tide definitely changed and we saw Taguchi the wizard. There was high flying, submissions galore, ankle locks, Bloody Cross's and it got to the point where neither guy count capitalise due to the lack of energy because of the fast pace of this match. In the end, it took 2 Bloody Cross's to let Ishimori retain his title which was followed by Jushin Thunder Liger accepting Ishimori's challenge! The future is so bright for the Jr division! We then had the rubber singles match between Okada and Fale and I didn't really know which way this would go because Okada is an amazing athlete, whereas Fale isn't really known for his beautiful matches but rather his dominance! However, Okada really brought the best out of Fale and it was a match where either guy could have won! With Okada getting the win, he's gained a lot of momentum and some of the spark he needed!

Then we got onto the main event which, as a Switchblade girl, I was way too invested in! I didn't know who was going to win because both were at equal momentum and just small things made me doubt Jay, just a little bit. I mean his knees buckled in the match and Tana seemed to get a new wind on his back halfway through the match and was hitting Styles clash after High Fly Flow after Clover Leaf hold. The match went on for over 30 minutes, but testemant to the guys, it didn't even feel like that long because it had my attention from start to end (which is hard to do). Jay used every trick in the book to get the win with a chair, targetting Tana's leg and almost using a chair. However, in the end, I am so glad that it was Jay's amazing talent that won him the title and I don't think I've ever been so happy but like emotionally drained from a match as I have from this! I could easily say I wish Jay hadn't of won it so quickly to make the eventual win more sweet, but seeing Jay with the title made me realise that the time is perfect and Jay's been ready for this title reign in a long ass time. You can probably tell I am a bit too excited about this win #TeamSwitchblade.

So, what's next? We've got Iizka's retirement, the Honor Rising dates and anniversary show before the New Japan Cup which is jam packed with possibilities. Honestly, I know I saw it all the time but the future is so bright and let's see if Liger can capture the Jr title before his anniversary, will Roppingi 3k get those titles back and who's Jay's next opponent? 

So, what were your thoughts on the New Beginning tour and the start of the Switchblade era? I Like always, let me know in the comments or on social media (@Wrestling_Chat on Twitter and Wrestling Chatter on FB and WrestlingChatter96 on IG) all your thoughts!

Until next time,

Bye!