Thoughts on NJPW New Beginning, NXT TakeOver, & the Royal Rumble

It was a big weekend for professional wrestling with WWE holding their latest NXT Takeover event and the Royal Rumble. Meanwhile, New Japan held two nights of New Beginning events.

NJPW New Beginning in Sapporo Night 1

*Minoru Suzuki against Hiroshi Tanahashi was beautiful brutality, but I could have lived without Tanahashi’s foot being literally turned around and him not tapping. Either tap, stop the match at that point because a man can’t compete with his foot pointing backwards, or don’t do the spot. I love the story they told and I’m all in on Suzuki killing guys, but that really bothered me. Also, I never want to see Tanahashi tap out until maybe the last match of his career. If he didn’t tap this past week, nothing will get this man to tap.

*The Elite against Chaos six-man was very disappointing. I was hoping for better showings by Jay White and Roppongi 3K in order to give them momentum heading into Night 2, but they were outclassed. Granted, it made sense. The Elite have been together for years while this was White’s first match with Roppongi. Thrown together teams should not perform well against teams who have a long history together. It just did nothing to get me excited for the title matches the next night.

*I can’t decide if I like Okada’s post match attack on SANADA or Naito’s post match ignoring of HASHI better. Naito’s overconfidence, which cost him against Okada, could be his undoing once again on Feb. 10. As for Okada, there’s little chance he loses to SANADA, but I like the disrespect.

*Kota Ibushi is amazing and I’m very glad he didn’t stick around on 205 Live. All is well in Bullet Club land.

NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia

*Johnny Gargano is amazing. Andrade Cien Almas is amazing. I want these two men to wrestle forever. I have not heard a crowd react like that to a WWE match in forever. They bit on the near falls. I bit on the near falls. I don’t do star ratings, but that match was perfect pro wrestling. And sure, Tommaso Ciampo laying him out in the end was predictable, but who cares? Something can be right and predictable at the same time. I liked that it was one crutch shot followed by a psycho stare of disregard.

*I’ve never been the biggest Adam Cole fan, but he delivered against Aleister Black. Black might be one of the most underrated performers in WWE right now. He’s had a lot of great matches in NXT, but doesn’t quite get the praise he deserves. Assuming Black-Almas is the next program, I can’t wait to see what they can do without the restrictions they had in their first match.

*After watching Suzuki/Tanahashi, I had no problem with Ember Moon not immediately tapping to Shayna Baszler’s armbar.

*If Gargano-Almas was the perfect pro wrestling match, Velveteen Dream is the perfect pro wrestling character. This man nails so many little things. The boxing shorts, the valet introduced mouthpiece, the shadow boxing and shuffling. He treats each match as its own entity, adapting his character to his opponent in order to psych them out. The ring work wasn’t quite as good as Dream-Black, but he’s further along at 22 than most guys are at 32.

*Have the Authors of Pain had a bad TakeOver match? I know they’ve been fortunate enough to be in the ring with some really great tag teams, but I’m willing to say that they are a really great tag team in their own right.

NJPW New Beginning in Sapporo Night 2

*Admittedly, being a new NJPW viewer, I don’t quite get the impact of Omega and Ibushi re-uniting like longtime viewers. I’ve caught up enough to understand what is going on, but that moment didn’t hit me as hard as it probably hit others.

*So, Cody Rhodes is the leader of the Bullet Club now? I’ve enjoyed his NJPW work thus far, but this could end badly.

*I want to be all in on Jay White, but he was a passenger in the match with Omega. He looked a lot better in this match than he did against Tanahashi, but I didn’t feel like this was a star making performance for White. I still like the character and his role in Chaos, but I have not been overly impressed with him in the ring thus far.

*Like Gargano and Almas, I want to see the Young Bucks and Roppongi 3K fight on every show. The Bucks role in Bullet Club will be very interesting moving forward. They’ve been attached at the hip to Omega, but are also the faces of the stable. All I know is that I’m extremely excited for the eventual Bucks vs. Lovers showdown.

*The Chaos-LIJ 10-man was an awesome sprint and a much needed win for SANADA if I’m to take him serious as a challenger to Okada.

*Push Juice Robinson

WWE Royal Rumble

*At least they didn’t ruin the Women’s Royal Rumble by having Ronda Rousey enter. But the fact that she couldn’t walk and point without looking unnatural and uncomfortable is not a good sign for her prospects moving forward. And I’ll buy that she’s a “full time performer” when I see her on the house show loop.

*The Women’s Royal Rumble was much better than I expected it to be given the Men’s Royal Rumble recent history. There are two problems I had with it. First, they can’t rely on past performers as much as they did on Sunday, moving forward. It worked on Sunday because they bridged the past with the present in a celebration of making history. They can still use past performers for certain spots in the future, but a third of the entrants can’t be from the past. Second, this was supposed to be a moment for the women, and all of the chants were for men. That’s not a knock on WWE or the match, it just goes to show that they have to do a better job building these women over the next year.

*I need a shoot fight between Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman.

*Jason Jordan is the best heel in wrestling.

*After having my doubts about the Men’s Royal Rumble, they really delivered one of the best Rumble’s in forever. They used the nostalgia spots correctly, they knew how they crowd would react and manipulated them perfectly, and there were plenty of memorable spots. The crowd turned Shinsuke Nakamura into a star in one night and I don’t know anyone who is not excited for Styles-Nakamura at WrestleMania. The build for the match was an afterthought, but it was the best laid out Rumble in at least 10 years.

*I love the story they are telling with Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable. They just can’t waste it by waiting too long and turning them into lifetime losers. If they play it right, it could be a great WrestleMania moment.

*I’m ready for Kevin Owens to move on from Shane McMahon.

What were you favorite moments from a busy weekend in wrestling? Leave a comment or hit me on Twitter @jeremylambert88