Pantoja’s NJPW Road To The New Beginning Collection Review

NJPW Road to the New Beginning Collection

While I wait for STARDOM’s Supreme Fight to hit VOD, I figured I’d catch up on some New Japan. They’ve mostly just run smaller Road to the New Beginning events since Wrestle Kingdom. I won’t be covering a full show here but there are some notable main events/title matches worth checking out.

January 22^nd, 2025 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 1,019

El Desperado and Hirooki Goto vs. Kosei Fujita and Zack Sabre Jr.

This is designed to preview two upcoming title matches. Fujita has a shot at Desperado’s Jr. Heavyweight Title while Goto is lined up to face ZSJ for the IWGP World Title. It’s something small but I’ve always liked how they stagger the entrances in these matches. It was Fujita, Desperado, Goto, and then the top guy, ZSJ. The early stages here gave us the expected previews as Sabre and Goto went at it before Despy and Fujita picked up the pace with some fun action. It was solid stuff but where this match started to stand out was when the weight classes intermingled. They allowed Desperado and Fujita to get in a fair bit of offense on their bigger counterparts, which you don’t see too often in New Japan. There was a cool spot where ZSJ and Fujita both put Goto in a submission and it looked awesome. Interestingly, they built the hot tag to Desperado and not Goto. I also appreciated the ZSJ/Desperado interactions given their Suzuki-Gun history. Watching them trade submissions makes me want the old Jr. Heavyweight vs. Heavyweight Champion gimmick we used to get. I liked how Despy and Goto had a miscommunication (not being regular partners like their opponents) that nearly led to their downfall. However, Goto pulled Sabre into a pinning combination to win in 17:51. A high energy main event in front of a hot Korakuen crowd that did a good job of previewing what’s to come. [***½]

 January 23^rd, 2025 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 1,005

Ryohei Oiwa vs. YOSHI-HASHI

I haven’t been following New Japan too closely to know the story behind this. It’s a guy who is still very new to things going up against a career midcarder. I do know they went pretty hard after each other in a tag at New Year Dash. If this had that same intensity, it could’ve been a sleeper. Unfortunately, it headlined the show which meant they had to work a lengthy match at a pace that didn’t suit them. It meant things had a much slower pace that robbed them of what made their previous interactions fun. There’s still a fair amount to like here as Oiwa has some impressive power in his offense and YOSHI is one of those dudes who tends to always bring the effort. When they were trading strikes and just going at it, this did what I wanted it to. When they had to find other ways to stretch this out, it struggled mightily. The highlight was problem them just dropping each other with big suplex variations. The finish was kind of flat as Oiwa just hit a discus lariat with little fanfare after 21:26. It’s not a bad match but it suffers from the usual New Japan main event problem of “it’d be so much better if you shaved 5-10 minutes off it.” [**½]

January 30^th, 2025 | Sendai Sun Plaza in Sendai, Miyagi | Attendance: 1,077

NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship: Boltin Oleg, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano [c] vs. Ren Narita, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi

It’s so hard to be excited or interested in anything involving the House of Torture. The challengers turned the tables on the champs and took the advantage by jumping them during their entrance. That sparked a brawl and ended up with Tanahashi on the wrong side of a 3-on-1 beating. He’s our Ace though, so he managed to fight through it. A lot of this match was just mindless brawling through the crowd and cheap uses of chairs. Things got better when it was a more traditional tag and Boltin got the chance to showcase his power game. Then we got more shenanigans from low blows to Dick Togo interference. Yano took him out but that allowed SHO to use a low blow to roll Yano up in 11:51. How they’ve massacred my boy SHO. This was inoffensive but also pretty dull and more of the same from this tired stable. [**]

February 3^rd, 2025 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 928

NJPW World Television Championship No Count Out Match: El Phantasmo [c] vs. Jeff Cobb

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. I am not a huge ELP fan but he’s had some really good matches in recent years and Cobb is usually a safe bet for something solid. Their G1 match last year was good (***¼).    Plus, I’m always down for matches with a 15 minute time limit. Anyway, the stipulation is because they had a double countout at Battle in the Valley last month. Cobb threw ELP around to start but once things moved outside it became more even. ELP hit dives and he busted out a ridiculously scary moonsault to the outside. He could’ve destroyed himself on the guardrail. He missed and hit some Young Lions instead but that was insane. That didn’t stop ELP though, who kept going for big spots, complete with his RVD tribute taunt. I appreciated the use of the No Count Out stipulation as they brawled all throughout Korakuen. Back in the ring, Cobb took control by again utilizing his power but ELP kept fighting back and surviving whatever what was thrown at him. ELP countered Tour of the Islands into a DDT followed by a series of springboard splashes to retain in 12:45. We’re back up as that was a very good match that used the stipulation well. [***½]

February 4^th, 2025 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 1,287

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: El Desperado [c] vs. Kosei Fujita

The most interesting thing on these “Road to” shows. Fujita is a guy who is rising in the Jr. Heavyweight division while Desperado is the current Ace. They met in the BOSJ last year and it was damn good (***¾). Desperado didn’t seem to take Kosei too seriously to start, smirking as he laid into him with strikes. They traded chops for what felt like forever, harkening back to the forgotten Hiromu/Minoru match from a few years ago. That allowed this to be harder hitting than a lot of Jr. Heavyweight Title matches and made it so Kosei proved he could go toe-to-toe with the top of the division. Kosei swung the momentum a bit with a moonsault to the outside but neither guy really took a clear cut lead. That was kind of the story here. Desperado is often known for his technical skill so the fact that Kosei was able to match him there was impressive. That ZSJ partnership came in handy. That forced Desperado to have to alter his gameplan and start hitting more impactful offense like a back suplex and a sitout powerbomb. Still, Kosei picked him apart with various submissions. The closing stretch here was tremendous with great counters as Despy hit a cutter and Kosei countered what looked like a finishing stretch with his own flash pin. A highlight was another chop exchange late but this time they kept going to the point of exhaustion. In the end, Desperado won out with Guitarra del Angel in 23:03. Okay, that was fantastic. One of the best Jr. Heavyweight Title matches in recent memory. [****¼]

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

This is a cool way to watch these “Road to Shows.” If you don’t have time to consistently watch full shows, a ‘pick and choose’ option like I did worked wonders. Other than the six man tag, this was a blast with good matches and a standout title bout.