The February 5th Road to the New Beginning event from the legendary Korakuen Hall improved on the previous night’s attendance by drawing a house of 1,260 as New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) draws closer to The New Beginning in Osaka event which looks to be a Super No Vacancy Full House affair of over 12,000 paying fans.
The first match saw NJPW Noge Dojo Young Lion Yuya Uemura defeat NJPW Los Angeles (LA) Dojo Young Lion Gabriel Kidd in what was a quality showing from both wrestlers, who look to have bright futures in NJPW.
The second match saw Ryusuke Taguchi defeat NJPW Noge Dojo Young Lion Yota Tsuji. Over the past six months, Tsuji has shown a great deal of growth as he progresses through the vaunted NJPW Dojo system. Great Bash Heel Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Manabu Nakashi in the following match, in one of the best efforts from Nakanishi in 2020 before his retirement on the 22nd of this month.
The fourth match saw the CHAOS team of Will Ospreay, Tomohiro Ishii, and Robbie Eagles defeat the Suzuki-Gun team of Minoru Suzuki, RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr (ZSJ)., and Douki. Despite the loss, Douki has shown vast improvement since his debut during the 2019 Best of the Super Junior tournament. ZSJ and Ospreay traded words as they build-up to their February 14th title match at York Hall in Revolution Pro Wrestling.
The fifth match saw the Los Ingobernables de Japon (LIJ) team of NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi and Evil defeat Hirooki Goto and Toa Henare. Despite falling to Shingo, Henare showed the fire and spirit of a future NJPW champion. While the loss pushes him further down the NEVER Openweight challengers list, fans agreed that it’s only a matter of time before Henare captures a signature victory on his way to a big 2020 campaign.
The headline match of the evening saw the Suzuki-Gun team of Taichi, El Desperado, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeat IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Roppongi 3K (Sho/Yoh) and Kazuchika Okada. Taichi was able to pin Sho after the Suzuki-Gun team used a chair on the latter, leading to a beatdown on the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions before their February 9th V1 defense against Kanemaru and Desperado. Taichi continued to taunt Okada, after stating he’d like to face the 5x former IWGP Heavyweight Champion in Sapporo when NJPW holds their July tour of Hokkaido.
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