Pantoja’s NJPW The New Beginning In Osaka 2023 Review

NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka

February 11^th, 2023 | EDION Arena in Osaka, Japan | Attendance: 4,055

I had a busy Saturday so I couldn’t cover this sooner but it’s my morning activity before the Super Bowl. Also of note, I will be a day or so late with reviews for Elimination Chamber and Battle in the Valley next week.

Aaron Henare and The Great-O-Khan vs. Oskar Leube and Toru Yano

Well, we know who will take the pin here. Oskar also handled most of the action, looking to start and bring the fight to his opponents despite being overmatched while Yano mostly took it easy. That’s understandable, especially given the short length of this outing. Oskar brought a lot of energy to this before falling to Rampage from Henare at the 4:38 mark. Mostly a squash though a relatively fun one. [**]

BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA and Tetsuya Naito vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino, Tiger Mask IV and Tomoaki Honma

I hope that this Umino/Naito thing is only either continuing so it can improve or that it ends on this tour. Knowing Gedo, it’ll continue into a 45 minute match or something like that. Anyway, this was a New Japan multi-man tag with less energy than the top-tier ones. You could tell that these guys finished their best work on the tour already for the most part and the others (SANADA, BUSHI, Taguchi, Honma, TMIV) are kind of just there. Hiromu and Taguchi had their usual solid exchanges and Shota targeted Naito with everything he had. The finish saw Taguchi put down Taguchi with Time Bomb II in 8:43, ending a solid yet unspectacular match on the undercard. [**½]

The big news came after the match as the lights went out during LIJ’s celebration. Lio Rush appeared on screen to say that Hiromu is different from everyone he’s faced around the world and issued a challenge for the Jr. Heavyweight Title. Hiromu accepted and honestly, that’s the most interesting Jr. Title match in a long time.

Master Wato vs. Taiji Ishimori

Now we’re getting into the meat of the card as this is the rare event with multiple undercard singles matches. Their past include meetings at the 2020 BOSJ (***¼), 2021 BOSJ (***¼), and Declaration of Power 2022 (***½). Wato also has gotten one-up on Ishimori in recent tags. As usual, giving these guys room to work in a singles match was a good move, plus it didn’t go too long. Win/win. The idea of this match was that Wato continues to improve and he had Ishimori’s number at points. He seemed to be a step ahead only for Ishimori to use his veteran knowhow to stop his momentum. I wish the baseball slide German came off better though. It’s a personal favorite move of mine but Wato took the bump too slowly so it looked weak. I liked how Wato avoided the 450 splash only for Ishimori to roll through and viciously throw him into the exposed corner. It showed off his veteran instincts and added damage to the arm to set up the Bone Lock. Little things like that always work for me in matches. Wato survived the Bone Lock and blocked Bloody Cross before they went into the expected New Japan closing stretch. Ishimori cut off Recientemente II with a leaping knee that was soon followed up with Bloody Cross, ending this in 11:19. I like quality wrestling that doesn’t overstay its welcome. [***½]

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. KENTA

They’ve faced off in the G1 29 (****), G1 30 (***¾), Power Struggle 2020 (***½), Summer Struggle in Nagoya (***¼), Power Struggle 2021 (***¾), and Wrestle Kingdom 16 (***¾). Yeah, they’re typically good together. We had a surprisingly split crowd though maybe they were just happy to be chanting again. I liked that KENTA tried to duel Tanahashi in crowd reaction and used that for a sneak attack. Great way to turn the fans back on you. You can tell I haven’t been totally in on this company because I had no idea Tanahashi was missing some front teeth. A lot of this was kind of basic for them, with the guys doing the spots we’ve come to know from them (minus Tanahashi working the knee which was missing here) and keeping things short. Of course, since this is a Bullet Club match, we had to have shenanigans like a ref bump and low blow. Things got more intense down the stretch and they started hitting each other hard before Tana countered Go to Sleep into Slingblade. He added another and won with High Fly Flow in 13:57. A good match that never touched their best work. That said, I do think this booking is proof that the NJPW stuff in the States doesn’t really matter. KENTA is on the verge of a notable match there and he just takes an L here. [***¼]

NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship: House of Torture [c] vs. El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki & Ren Narita

If they keep the shenanigans to a minimum, this could be good. Of course, they wouldn’t do that. If the champs didn’t defend the belts here, they’d be stripped. The champs jumped Narita during his entrance and added assaults on the other challengers. It’s interesting to see the trio with a vocal crowd. They have done their garbage matches to silence for years and now they got some heat that somewhat helped. The jump start meant that the challengers had to fight from beneath and with Narita out on the stage, the former Suzuki-Gun duo had to work with a 3-on-2 disadvantage. Narita made to the ring only to get cut off by Togo (who he tossed aside) and EVIL. Narita finally got the hot tag and did his thing, getting the shine a guy with his talent deserves. I love that other former Young Lions need new gimmicks after graduating but Narita is just like “Shibata-lite.” The Cobra Twist got interrupted only for Narita’s buddies to save him and then they trapped EVIL and SHO in submissions, allowing Narita to reapply the Cobra Twist to make Yujiro tap after 12:51. I liked that a fair bit. The House of Torture on offense was kind of dull but the story behind Narita rallying and the embrace after the bell made it all worth it. [***¼]

The Suzuki/Narita hug got a pop. The trio will be known simply as Strong Style. Let them hold the titles for like a year, putting on great trios tags at every turn and make the titles mean something. Translation: It won’t happen. We ended this segment with a loud KAZ NI NARE.

Loser Leaves Japan: HIKULEO vs. Jay White

The wording of the stipulation is what matters. Lose leaves Japan, not NJPW. That means US shows. HIKULEO got new music. Wait, his name isn’t stylized in all caps anymore? I know nothing. Commentary harped on how the crowd didn’t want either guy to lose as if Hikuleo would be an equal loss to the company. Anyway, Jay controlled this match and did so in wise fashion. Facing a larger opponent, he meticulously targeted the knee and worked it over with smart offense. He threw in some classic antics like a beating with a chair and things like that. However, this fell victim to the typical New Japan problem. It had no business going 25:08. Hikuleo isn’t someone ready to do that, much like Umino’s main event disaster the other night against Naito. Jay kept it interesting with smack talk and Hikuleo did fine enough in terms of selling but there’s no doubt this would’ve been better at 15-20 minutes. I thought the late counters of a body slam and a Blade Runner were well done, especially since it didn’t lead to finisher kickouts and things like that. Hikuleo got going and when Jay was grabbed for a Chokeslam, he realized it was over. He got one final Too Sweet from his former partner, smiled, and fell to the Chokeslam. They told a really good story though things were overly long at parts. [***¼]

Post-match, White fist bumped Tanahashi at ringside before leaving with Gedo.

NEVER Openweight Championship: Tama Tonga [c] vs. El Phantasmo

SUPERKICK VS. RKO! Speaking of matches that went too long, was anyone clamoring for a 27:07 Tama/ELP bout? I like the idea of this being built around who had the better one-shot finisher, which I also feel lends itself to a shorter match. Commentary made sure to note that with Jay gone, ELP could use this as a way to vault himself into power within the stable. The teases as both men went for their finishers early were well done. You could see that some exchanges felt kind of misplaced or gave off a start/stop vibe as if they had to pad out the runtime with them and they didn’t flow on their own. For example, the bit with the submissions felt unnecessary That said, there were some really good aspects here and I’m still a fan of fiery babyface Tama and ELP doing Bullet Club callbacks to the likes of AJ Styles and Prince Devitt. I would’ve liked one for Jay White given what just happened. I didn’t like that Tama kicked out of Sudden Death. If you build the match around those finishers being “one-shot” then it should finish that way. Oddly, think about Sheamus vs. Big Show in 2012. The WMD as Sheamus went for the Brogue Kick ended that great match. The Sudden Death to avoid Gun Stun here should’ve done the same. We also got a Gun Stun kickout which was lame. In the end, a twisting Jay Driller managed to keep ELP down, capping another in a string of good but not great matches. [***]

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada [c] vs. Shingo Takagi

Their past saw matches in the G1 30 (****), New Japan Cup 2021 (***¾), Dominion 2021 (****¼), and Wrestle Kingdom 16 (****). Okada represents the tired, stale part of New Japan while Shingo represents that anytime someone new and interesting comes along, their push is cut off at the legs in favor of the status quo. I’ll get this out of the way early: yes, this was Okada formula and yes, there was some of the obvious filler/time padding stuff that I just can’t stand in New Japan main event. That being said, this stood out for two reasons. 1: Shingo is a fantastic opponent for Okada and 2: Okada went heel. I always love when he (and Tanahashi) do that because Okada is such a great prick heel. Look at him. He looks like a guy who knows he’s the top star and can have a shit eating grin about it. I didn’t like commentary trying to make excuses for Shingo’s past wins over Okada. You don’t have to downplay them or be like “well Okada was hurt.” It won’t affect his standing as the top guy. Anyway, the opening stages of this were typical Okada but the crowd was way into it, excited to chant and because Okada told them to be totally on Shingo’s side. He wanted to be the antagonist. Okada played into it, being more aggressive than usual and egging on the crowd. Okada even went for the Money Clip that nobody likes because it beat Shingo before. Shingo was his usual violent self, even opening a wound on Okada’s back as he worked it over and did things like a DVD on the floor. After Shingo stopped a Rainmaker with his own vicious lariat, this got kicked into the highest gear for the closing stretch. They threw bombs at each other as two top stars should, especially given their history. The Last of the Dragon near fall got a great reaction even though everyone knew Okada was retaining. Okada did just that with a second Rainmaker at the 32:07 mark. That would be another run of the mill, 7/10 Okada title defense but the combination of the loud crowd, Shingo’s performance, and heelish Okada puts it over the top. [****½]

Post-match, Okada’s title defense for the Mercedes Moné debut show was set up to be another chapter in the rivalry with Tanahashi. People are already online saying how the women need to main event and honestly, if NJPW wants people to take the ladies seriously, that’s the right move.

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

That was a more consistent show than usual from New Japan as the undercard stuff was mostly entertaining and only the first two matches felt kind of pointless. Only two matches got ***½ or higher but the main event ruled and most of the show is good.