wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s NJPW Road To New Beginning Review 1.23.24 & 1.24.24
Image Credit: NJPW
Loading...NJPW Road To The New Beginning Mashup
I can’t bring myself to cover everything on these “Road to” shows but there are a few matches that either stood out to me because they sounded intriguing on paper or because they are somewhat important, whether they be part of a rivalry or for a championship. So instead of reviewing the entire show each time, I picked out a few from each that I’ll look at.
January 23rd, 2024 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 1,510
We’ll start with stuff from the 1/23 and 1/24 shows. Then I’ll do some February shows before returning with a full review of the 2/11 event.
BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito & Yota Tsuji vs. DOUKI, SANADA, Taichi, TAKA Michinoku & Yuya Uemura
We’ve got some Just 5 Guys against LIJ and though LIJ is certainly not at the level they were in 2016, they can still have good multi-man tags. This also marks my first time seeing Naito with this World Title. I’ll admit, I popped for LIJ attacking before the bell. I know they’re babyfaces but their name does mean they’re still rule breakers. That sparked a brawl outside for a while before things calmed down inside. I believe Naito/SANADA is a match coming up but the focal points here were Shingo/Taichi and Yota/Yuya and I’m glad for that. Those interactions were stronger and helped boost the match. I also liked DOUKI against Hiromu though that’s mostly because I appreciate the underrated DOUKI. Yota is such a star, they really need to start booking him to win stuff. The closing stretch saw basically everyone get involved to hit their stuff, capped by Taichi taking out BUSHI with a superkick in 11:32. I think that final move was kind of lackluster but everything else worked. They kept this tight and it had almost no slow down, making for a fun match. [***½]
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: El Desperado [c] vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Former teammates collide over the Jr. Heavyweight Title. Given their history as partners, it should come as no surprise that they have strong chemistry. Their exchanges came off well and Kanemaru looked better in there than he has in a while. It helped that they avoided too much House of Torture BS early on, allowing them to just go at it. Even with Kanemaru using some underhanded tactics, at least it wasn’t the same old HoT stuff that ruins so many matches. Kanemaru was just a sneaky vet and Desperado had to fight from beneath which is a good spot for him. Both guys also sold the various submissions throughout really well. Kanemaru made it seem like the Stretch Muffler ruined his life and that’s great. Really put over the hold. When it was applied the second time, we got HoT run-ins to save their partner. That actually worked because it wasn’t overdone earlier so it mattered here and the crowd reacted. Babyfaces like Shooter Umino and Hiroshi Tanahashi ran them off though. I will say, I didn’t need the second set of interference. Just have Dick Togo and EVIL come out with the others. They were run off by Tama Tonga. Left one on one, the champion slapped the whiskey out of Kanemaru’s mouth and ultimately beat him with the Stretch Muffler in 23:55. A strong first defense for Desperado as you didn’t burn a major challenger (though I don’t think there really are any in the division) and gave us a good match. They overdid the interference just a bit though this was still very good. [***½]
January 24th, 2024 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 1,506
We’ve got four matches from this night!
Alex Coughlin, Clark Connors, David Finlay, Drilla Moloney & Gabe Kidd vs. Callum Newman, Catch-22, HENARE & The Great-O-Khan
On paper, this isn’t really up my alley but I saw the 6:15 runtime and figured it might be a fun little sprint. United Empire attacked during the Bullet Club entrance to signify what kind of match this would be. Just 10 dudes beating the hell out of each other. It also makes sense (and you know how big I am on the simple concept of a match being logical) because they have a heated cage match on the horizon. This should feel like a war. I loved that this was a barrage of guys coming in, hitting offense, then taking offense, and it continued like that for the entire short duration. Connors got the win with an Implant DDT on Akira, capping a rad bout. I really liked that more than I expected. And the fight continued after the bell. [***½]
DOUKI and SANADA vs. Hiromu Takahashi and Tetsuya Naito
There’s potential here since I like the DOUKI/Hiromu pairing. I’m cold on Naito/SANADA but they can still work. Ultimately, what they delivered was quite good. These guys paired off the way I said led to some quality exchanges though I was actually more intrigued when they mixed things up. I’m kind of always a sucker for the juniors and the heavyweights mixing things up, especially when it gives me stuff like DOUKI vs. Naito. The kind of singles match we’ll never get. DOUKI got isolated for a bit with the focus on his arm before he made the hot tag to SANADA. That makes sense but SANADA isn’t my kind of hot tag guy. He’s too chill for that role. I need a bit more fire from a hot tag. My favorite thing was the finish as DOUKI pulled Hiromi into a surprising pinning combination to win in 9:18 and then held the pin for an extra 10 or so seconds, proving he truly had him beat. A good tag here. [***]
NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii [c] vs. Kosei Fujita & TMDK
This Okada/Ishii/Tanahashi trio is legendary. This came about because the TMDK squad somehow beat Okada, Ishii, Danielson, and Moxley at New Year Dash. The standout in the build is Fujita/Okada as things have been heated between them. Okada as the old man who takes no shit from young guys like Fujita is hilarious. I’m sad he’s leaving as it’s the first time I’m enjoying Okada in YEARS. I loved Fujita in this, going right at the champions as if they weren’t icons. It’s exactly how he should act. I liked that the challengers looked to isolate Tanahashi given how he’s shockingly kind of the lowest on the totem pole now and he’s broken down. Haste and Nicholls had a great near fall on Ishii that everyone bit on, partially because they know it’s the end for Okada. It’s very possible he doesn’t walk out with a title. As strong as the TMDK vs. Ishii and Tanahashi battle was, it had to come down to Okada vs. Fujita and they were great. Fujita’s deadlift German was a fantastic spot but when he nearly beat Okada with a pinning combination, I lost my shit. Alas, Fujita got left alone with the champs who all hit him with moves before Okada beat him with the Rainmaker in 22:15. Okada doesn’t even do jobs on the way out. Fujita beating him with a rollup would’ve been PERFECT. Ah well, what we got was a tremendous match. [****]
Ren Narita vs. Shota Umino
The departure of Okada makes it even more clear but the future, hell the present, of this company needs to be Narita, Umino, Tsuji, and Uemura. However, they mishandled a lot with that like booking Tsuji to lose big matches consistently and putting Narita in the House of Torture. These two had a banger in the G1 that went to a draw (****) but are given a main event spot here. The problem here was that since it was a main event in New Japan, it just HAD to go 30+. Gedo, not everyone is Okada. It’s okay to not have stuff go 30+. Narita and Umino aren’t quite ready for that. Throw in this being riddled with some House of Torture run-ins and you can see why it wasn’t some great closer. The fighting around the arena was fine and a lot of their actual exchanges were really good but you could tell that they had 15-20 minutes in them but had to go 33, so they dragged things out and it made for a disjointed main event. You didn’t need to do two crowd spots and the ref bump to set up the interference felt cheap. You just knew the crowd was waiting for the run-ins so a lot of what came before it was weak. After the House of Torture was subdued by some babyfaces, Shooter got going and won with Death Rider in 33:45. As stated, that should’ve been like 20:45 at max. [**¾]
