Kevin’s NJPW The New Beginning In Hiroshima Night One Review

NJPW The New Beginning in Hiroshima Night One
February 10th, 2021 | Hiroshima Sun Plaza in Nishi-ku, Hiroshima

I completely forgot this show happened and couldn’t watch it until today. That means today’s show will probably be reviewed tomorrow.

El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Gabriel Kidd, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura
Oh, baby. Have you ever seen a case where people are basically walking into their certain death? That’s what this felt like as you just knew that Minoru Suzuki was pumped that he’d get to WRECK some Young Lions. I loved that they decided to say screw it and jumped Suzuki-Gun before the bell. It was a smart role reversal that played into the idea that they were going to give it their all before death. A lot of this was focused on them stepping up to Suzuki and that made for something entertaining. You even want the Boston Crab Uemura put on to be enough even when you knew it wouldn’t. Despite a spirited effort, the Young Lions fell when Suzuki, after getting slapped, beat Uemura with a half crab in 8:01. Hell yeah, that was a blast. [***¼]

BUSHI vs. Master Wato
A rare undercard singles match. This has been built up decently in multi-man tags in recent weeks. As expected from junior heavyweights, this got off to a fast start though the intensity wasn’t quite up to the previous bout. It seemed like the focus here was kind of on BUSHI being a step ahead of Wato at almost every turn. He’s the veteran who, even though he doesn’t win a ton, is ahead of Wato on the food chain for now. Wato rallied and I expected that to lead to his victory. However, BUSHI put him down with MX after 11:08. I fully thought this was going to be a win for Wato and I’m pleasantly surprised. I’ve always liked BUSHI and I think Wato struggling makes for a good story. [***]

El Phantasmo, EVIL, Jay White, Taiji Ishimori & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI
On paper, this kind of works as a preview for the NEVER Tag on the next show. However, it’s just Jay here since the Guerrillas are on later. Instead, this allows for build for the expected EVIL/Kazuchika Okada bout while also giving us more of the Jay White/Tomohiro Ishii exchanges. Those have been incredible and I’m so stoked for their singles match. Honestly, most of this match was like every other multi-man tag between them that you’ve seen. Yano did his shenanigans, Okada and EVIL had average back and forth, and the White/Ishii stuff stole the show. They saved this from being super forgettable. Yano beat Yujiro with a low blow once again after 12:08. The whole thing was okay. [**¾]

Kota Ibushi and Tomoaki Honma vs. SANADA and Tetsuya Naito
The main focus here was obviously on SANADA/Ibushi ahead of their double title match. Get rid of the double title gimmick please. Anyway, this was also helped by the mini-feud that Naito and Honma have had in recent weeks. It’s just Naito going through the motions but it’s better than nothing. This, like the previous match, followed the expected tropes. SANADA and Ibushi continue to have lackluster exchanges while Naito sleepwalks and Honma exists. Honma fell to Destino after 11:02. Another fine match. [**¾]

IWGP Tag Team Championship: The Guerrillas of Destiny [c] vs. The Dangerous Tekkers
I enjoyed their Wrestle Kingdom title match (***¼) since Taichi and Sabre Jr. are awesome. The major issue here is the one that plagues NJPW all the way. THIS WENT ON FOREVER. It’s one thing to book Okada in a 30 minute match. The audacity to book a near 30 minute Guerrillas of Destiny match! There was this really weird gimmick involving a bag that was far from the least of this match’s problems. I thought going 19 was a bit much in the Tokyo Dome so adding ten minutes here was such a problem. There was a pretty good 12-15 minute match in here. The rest of it dragged on for painfully long and guess what? After the absurd 29:08, this all simply led to a disqualification. What a waste of my life. I miss when Taichi and ZSJ made the division mildly fun for a short while. [*]

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi [c] vs. SHO
It’s almost impossible to get me more invested in two junior heavyweights than these two. These two went at it right off the bat, trading shots and making you think it might be a short fight. This is New Japan, though, and everything has to be dragged out. Thankfully, SHO and Hiromu are, like Jay White and Kota Ibushi, among the best in the company and they can make a long match work. There were almost too many forearm shots to the face in this one to count as they were going to war. As this progressed, Kevin Kelly mentioned that the longest Jr. Heavyweight Title match ever was 34 minutes and that immediately told me that it would surpass that number. After the hot start, things slowed a bit, adding to the sense that it was going long. They picked up the pace after the 20 minute mark and started hitting moves that looked vicious. It made me worried for Hiromu at a few points. They went from trying to outmaneuver the other to throwing some late bombs. Without the usual NJPW back and forth exchange to end it, Hiromu retained with Time Bomb #2 after a whopping 35:38. A bit of a disappointment as it felt they tried to go too long. That said, this was still great wrestling between two of the best out there and I could watch them wrestle any day of the week. It lacked some drama which hurt it as well since they never made me buy into a title change. [****]

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

Most of this show is pretty good. The undercard tags are solid, the opener is fun, and the main event is great. That Tag Title match is absolutely DIRE and really hurts the entire card.