The New Beginning series takes a look at both New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) New Beginning tours taking place in Japan and the United States.
The Road to the New Beginning tour opens from the Koga City Central Athletic Park Gymnasium in Ibaraki, Japan, and plays hosts to several interesting matches.
Yota Tsuji and Yuya Uemura renew their rivalry. Their singles match record sits at 5-4-21 in favor of Tsuji, who won the last match between the two during the Yong Lion Cup in September of last year.
NJPW Los Angeles Dojo Young Lion Gabriel Kidd makes his NJPW debut in the second match when he teams with Tiger Mask IV against former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori of the Bullet Club.
In the third match Manabu Nakanishi who recently announced his retirement teams with fellow NJPW Tokyo Dojo 3rd Generation graduate Hiroyoshi Tenzan against Great Bash Heel (GBH) another 3rd Generation graduate Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma.
The fourth match of the card previews Roppongi 3K’s (Sho & Yoh) v1 defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against their Suzuki-Gun rivals Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado on February 9th at The New Beginning In Osaka.
Suzuki-Gun receives this opportunity after defeating Roppongi 3K during a 4-way junior tag team at New Year Dash earlier in the month. Minoru Suzuki also has the opportunity to get live reps in before he makes the v2 challenge for the IWGP United States Heavyweight in Jon Moxley’s second reign as champion on February 9th at The New Beginning In Osaka.
Toa Henare looks to take the next step in his career and secure the big fall that he needs to move up the NJPW card and into title contention.
The fifth match is a prelude to one of the two co-headlining matches for the first-night of The New Beginning in Sapporo on February 1st and the featured events marquee match.
Evil and Shingo Takagi faced off in an intense and face-paced tag team match against Tomohiro Ishii and NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto at New Year Dash.
Ishii and Evil will renew their rivalry, which has seen the two engage in intense brawls whenever they meet up during tag matches. However, the two have only met in three singles matches throughout their career, and Evil has yet to defeat Ishii in such contests.
After pinning Goto in the aforementioned tag-team match at New Year Dash — Shingo will receive his first opportunity at a sanctioned NJPW singles title. 2019 saw Goto inject life back into his career, and he began 2020 by defeating KENTA for the NEVER Openweight Championship. This match is an opportunity for him to begin plotting his strategy for Shingo going into his v1 title defense.
The headline match on the 25th preludes the headline and marquee matches at night-two of The New Beginning in Sapporo on February 2nd.
Will Ospreay and Zack Sabre Jr. (ZSJ) have a long, storied history against one another, with ZSJ defeating Ospreay in last year’s G1 Climax. Overall ZSJ is 7-4 against Ospreay in singles matches, a rivalry which began in the United Kingdom back in 2014. The two will meet for the RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship on February 2nd.
Taichi decided to use Kazuchika Okada to elevate himself after Okada lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to the first NJPW ‘Double Champion‘ Tetsuya Naito on night-two of Wrestle Kingdom 14. If not for Jon Moxley interrupting the attack, Taichi may have hit Okada with his senpai Toshiaki Kawada’s vicious Ganso Bomb.
This match is an opportunity for Taichi to see how he matches up against Okada going into their marquee match on February 2nd at the Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center.
Robbie Eagles and Douki will look to gain momentum, as both have championship aspirations, especially Eagles who pinned new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takashi in December.
The marquee match on the 25th preludes one of the co-headline matches on the February 9th The New Beginning in Osaka event, and the marquee match on that night as well. Hiromu will look to stay sharp as he prepares for his v1 defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in Osaka against Ryu Lee.
At New Year Dash, Sanada and Tetsuya Naito of Los Ingobernables de Japon (LIJ) teamed together against the Bullet Club team of Jay White and KENTA. Sanada pinned White with a rolling cradle, leading to White and KENTA to attack LIJ once again.
Sanada has a great opportunity to put himself into IWGP Intercontinental or IWGP Heavyweight Championship contention if he is able to defeat Jay White on February 9th.
KENTA bullied his way to a ‘Double Championship’ match against Naito in Osaka. The 25th is another opportunity for him to soften up the newly confident Naito before their encounter.
