In just a few hours, NJPW will be going live on New Japan World with a major event, New Beginning In Osaka! It involves a longstanding rivalry renewed, as Hiromu Takahashi defends the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Ryu Lee! The New Beginning tours effectively kick off the year on New Japan’s calendar after Wrestle Kingdom served as the season finale for 2019. Whilst the tour is made up of several events, some bigger than others, it all culminates with this last card here!
The way most New Japan events work, the first half of the card mostly consists of minor matches designed to just get people on the show without wearing them out. The latter half is the big stuff, the money draws with story significance. So we’ll just be dealing with that portion in these previews.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. Ryu Lee
Now this one has been a long, long time coming… Hiromu Takahashi and Ryu Lee – formerly known as Dragon Lee – have been tied at the hip since 2014. In his young lion days, Hiromu took a fateful excursion to Mexico where he and Lee found each other. Their battles against one another took on a life of their own, a wild chemistry that served to make them both famous.
Hiromu also went under a different name in those days, calling himself Kamaitachi, and his feud with Lee has taken them through CMLL, ROH and of course New Japan. The stage seems to get a little bit bigger every time they face off, the stakes higher and the matches all the crazier. Until it all came to a head back in 2018 at the G1 Special In San Francisco… New Japan’s big stateside debut had a somber note as during Hiromu’s Junior title defense, he was dropped on his head in a brutal spot that would end up taking him out of action for over a year. This happened in July of 2018 and he only just came back in time for Wrestle Kingdom 14, just to give you an idea of the severity.
It was another fateful chapter in this rivalry and it’s been destiny that they face off once more, with Hiromu attempting to redeem himself. I have to expect utter madness here, it’s just how they do things. But to me this is not the time for Hiromu to lose, he just made the hero’s return to become champ again and he’s a guy with some unfathomable charisma that he can be an incredible ace of this division for years to come. He’s a junior that can headline, no question in my mind. Now is the time to really push him. Hiromu over.
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