Previously on NJPW: Togi Makabe suddenly became super cool, Jay White made everyone miserable, and Sanada stepped his game up.
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And now, the Best and Worst of The New Beginning In Osaka, which is the fifth show in the New Beginning cycle, so a lot of this stuff isn’t that new anymore!
Worst: The Six In 0-And-6
A lot of matchups and match outcomes at The New Beginning in Osaka were very similar to what we saw on the Road To shows. We got off to a predictable start with the sixth in Katsuya Kitamura’s seven-match proving series. As expected, Kitamura lost his previous five matches. His opponent for this one is former IWGP Heavyweight Champion and current AJPW All Asia Tag Team Champion Blue Justice Yugi Nagata, one of the all-time greats.
Unsurprisingly, Kitamura loses this match and continues to look like a weak baby monster. Nagata even weirdly no-sells some of his much-hyped strikes, then takes full back bumps for two of them seemingly at random. We don’t get any hints at Kitamura’s future that we didn’t previously get in the series, and he doesn’t look great.
Best: And Her Heart Grew Roppongki 3K Sizes That Day
This match was pretty much what Roppongi 3K and Rocky’s six-man tag matches against Suzukigun led us to expect, but I still enjoyed it. I have a soft spot for Yoh and Sho and their shiny pants and midcard babyface goodness they’re serving up.
One thing that makes Roppongi 3K feel like such classic wrestling good guys is that they’re dumb. They get jumped by El Desperado and Kanemaru because they spend a second too long playing to the crowd after the bell rings, even though of course that’s what a Suzukigun team was going to do. Rocky’s out here saying his boys will beat any tag team in any promotion in the world, but he runs in to shield them from a post-match chair attack. So Roppongi 3K is dumb, but heartwarmingly so.
They put up a good fight despite Sho’s ongoing back injury and Yoh having the flu earlier in the week, but we see they’re going to have to toughen up in order to beat this type of opponent. They might just lose when El Desperado and Kanemaru challenge them as part of the Suzukigun power-up story that might be happening, but I hope we see these goofy hip hop kids figure out how to retain.
Best: The Kanagawa Rattlesnake
Our second tag match involving Suzukigun pits them against much more seasoned babyfaces who know you have to attack them right at the bell. The beautiful, violent shining star of this group is of course Togi Makabe, who once again focuses on Minoru Suzuki. It’s always great when someone attacks Suzuki before he’s ready for a match, because it really highlights how much he looks like he just got out of a pool despite being completely dry, like a reverse 2014 Bo Dallas.
You can tell Makabe has Suzuki about as shook as he gets throughout the match too. There’s a moment where Suzuki distracts the ref and the rest of his team jumps in to beat on Makabe that was clearly planned in advance, because he really does care! Makabe, in contrast, isn’t one to even pretend to hide his feelings. He urges Suzuki to hit him and even yells “F*ck you!” IN ENGLISH at the guy. Suzuki openly goes into a rage when Makabe wins. He finally, tauntingly accepts his challenge, then assaults Oka on his way out.
https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/962249430610141185
I can’t believe I’m more hyped for a Togi Makabe match than a Rey Mysterio match right now, but that’s the magic of pro wrestling! Anything can happen! And hopefully that includes making this No DQ!
https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/962246916145864704
An additional Best to Iizuka eating the Funky Weapon’s funky weapon-like groceries, because of the way Don Callis calls it: “I thought I was going to have to wait ’til about 3 a.m. tonight to see that … a Greco-Roman bite to the perineum, Kevin Kelly!” A Greco-Roman bite to the perineum, Kevin Kelly. Phrasing like that is how you get me to forgive you for telling me your search history, Callis.
Worst: Almost The Exact Same Six-Man Tag We Saw On Tuesday
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before — oh, you’re stopping me? We just saw these people do almost this exact same match? Huh.
I wish this was the CHAOS vs. Taguchi Japan and Henare match we got on day two of Road To, or that they had held off on the six-man tag match of it all until Osaka. There’s some good stuff here, but we saw slightly worse versions of it very recently. Jay White continues to get a separate entrance because he’s a special snowflake, they try to rehab Henare a bit as a dude who always picks fights with the biggest guys, and Robinson outsmarts Yano’s tried and true turnbuckle strategy.
I even got invested in the Finlay vs. White feud because Finlay was so much more fired up and aggressive … before White knocked him out the same way he attacked him and Henare in the last two matches in this series. White once again gets the win via ref stoppage. Ah well. Finlay spitting on White as he posed with the title made me like him a little more. Even though this still feels like such a pointless placeholder feud for White, I’m glad it’s gotten more enjoyable.
Best: Booyaka Part Two-yaka
I know I just made it sound like I’m not SO HYPED for Rey Mysterio vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, but, you guys, I am SO HYPED FOR REY MYSTERIOS VS. JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER. Rey was one of my favorites as a kid, partly because the first time I watched Raw the person I was watching it with told me he and Eddie Guerrero were the main characters and I didn’t question that for like a year, but also because he’s the freaking best.
With his surprise entrance at No. 27 in the Royal Rumble (this was Booyaka Part One-yaka, obviously) and now this, Rey Mysterio has clearly been living his best life since he got out of Matanza’s cage. He looks great … and Jushin Thunder Liger actually doesn’t, which makes me think this might not be Jericho vs. Omega 2: Now With Masks (I just realized I actually would really like to see those two fight again, but with masks.)
Liger is rocking an incredible Dad On A Fishing Trip But Also I’m Jushin Thunder Liger ensemble over on commentary, because he can never be anything less than iconic, but what we can see of his face shows his age. He hasn’t exactly been pulling off incredible athletic feats lately, either. Looking at him reminds you that this being a rematch from Starrcade 1996 probably doesn’t bode well for the match quality. So the adult in me knows not to get my hopes too high, but the kid/extreme Rey Mysterio mark in me is trying to kill that adult with a shovel.
Best: Overcompensating Intensifies
I love how the Bushi vs. Gedo feud has gotten so much more Mask vs. Beard. Each of Bushi’s replacement entrance masks is more elaborate and expensive than the last. This one has THE SHRUNKEN HEAD OF GEDO on its tongue. He also brings HEDGE CLIPPERS to the ring for the beard trim, which the ref takes almost immediately. That’s some good officiating; I bet Red Shoes would have let that slide. Gedo enters with both stolen masks around his neck and threatens to throw them into the audience. I would have loved it if he had worn them like Los Ingobernables O.G./our current NXT champ La Sombra as a bonus anti-L.I.J. slight.
The match is super fun because neither man seems to care about potentially getting DQed at all. When Bushi’s brilliant hedge clipper plan fails, he tries to rip out Gedo’s beard with his bare hands. When Gedo can’t steal Bushi’s mask right off the mat, he ties it to the ropes. In a brilliant use of a foreign object, Young Lion Umino frees Bushi by cutting the laces of his mask with the hedge clippers! What a smart and helpful move! And yet these kids never think to tie the turnbuckle pad back on!
Oh, also, the actual wrestling part of the match was very good, and Bushi’s win gets L.I.J. off to a strong start. The very pro-L.I.J. crowd in Osaka is loves it.
Best: Tetsuya Naito Is The Coolest Wrestler In The World
Worst: Relative Sizes Of Fish
The crowd stays hot for Naito vs. Yoshi-Hashi, and their response kept me more invested in the match than I would have been if they were more tranquilo. As our announcers point out, Osaka rejected Stardust Genius babyface Naito hard back in the day, but they love him now. The match could have felt like an arrogant vet against an underdog, but it’s really a rock star against an insecure underachiever. Especially after that Wrestle Kingdom 12 loss, I think we all want Naito to have the success he deserves.
Naito creates an electric atmosphere, and gets to be more of a clean cut, if extremely DGAF, babyface than he’s been since the Tokyo Dome. Yoshi-Hashi attacks him from behind during his entrance and gets booed for his crappy versus of the tranquilo taunt. Naito manages to get booed for a second after spitting at the crowd, but when he spits on YH a second later they’re already mostly back on his side. The most important thing, because wrestling, is that they’re loud, especially for a Japanese audience. I think everyone knew he was going to win (or that if he lost it wouldn’t matter in the long run), but was still invested.
The dastardly attack from behind by Taichi after the match as an interesting development too. Is this the start of a Taichi vs. Naito feud, L.I.J. vs. Suzukigun, or mostly Naito vs. Suzukigun? Will this converge with Makabe vs. Suzuki? I don’t know, but I’m excited for more of it!
Best: Chicken, Cats, Friendship
Ospreay vs. Takahashi for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship was probably my favorite match of the night in and of itself, and the escalating weirdness/adorableness of the feud only made it better. Takahashi brought Ospreay homemade fried chicken at the signing ceremony, so they’re best friends now, even though we all know Ospreay prefers grilled #cheekyNandos. As if that wasn’t great enough, the video package brought back the amazing element of Takahashi thinking Will Ospreay is probably a cat (he always lands on his feet) (Ricochet is also a cat) from the last time they feuded.
You wouldn’t think two opponents becoming friends who respect each other’s abilities before a match would improve it, but it does because “Ticking Time Bomb” is one of the most apt nicknames in pro graps. Ospreay has regular champion goals (elevating the title), but he has to deal with this hyper-violent guy who is obsessed with him. They know each other well at this point, but Ospreay’s ability to flip as easily as he walks and Takahashi’s impossible-to-predict internal logic keeps them both on their toes and keeps the match exciting. I would happily watch these guys fight ten more times.
This is the first CHAOS victory for these singles matches, and the first one that really matters. They don’t lose one of their many, many titles despite the opposition’s valiant effort, and, spoiler alert, this sets the tone for the rest of the night.
Worst: Mystery Of The Beads
Evil vs. Goto for the NEVER Openweight Heavyweight Championship has the boring version of the “champ wants to elevate championship; his heel opponent has other, stranger goals” dynamic. Evil says he will introduce Goto to darkness aka evil aka cue catchphrase. Evil would be so much more intimidating if he didn’t enter the ring looking like he just came from a Spirit Halloween store, then take off his costume to reveal eye makeup that tells us, no, he actually just came from crying in a Spirit Halloween store. Meanwhile, NJPW has been trying to get Goto more over as a singles competitor and he just had a very entertaining match with Suzuki at WK12, so it would be weird for him to lose now.
This match was more “hardcore” in than Takahashi vs. Ospreay in the sense that Evil uses chairs and other foreign objects and shoves the ref around, but it was by far the least intense of these singles matches. That might have been partly because the significance of Evil’s heeliest foreign object use was lost on me. Goto wore a necklace of large, seemingly wooden balls to the ring that Evil later uses to try to choke him out. Goto puts the necklace back on as he victoriously leaves the ring, and it feels important.
Kelly and Callis try and fail to figure out what it is and immediately stop the “balls” jokes once they realize its probably religious. My best guesses are that it was either a type of Buddhist prayer beads I’ve never seen before or something personally significant for Goto to elevate his Silent Warrior gimmick. Mostly it seemed like something the commentators should have been ready to explain to the non-Japanese audience.
Best: A Million Times Stronger Than All Of Us
https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/962290792198008832
I wanted Sanada to win this so badly that I tricked myself into believing it was possible, but apparently that’s not how the Secret works. Or the Secret doesn’t work. I’ll get back to you guys on that after I make my new pro wrestling outcome vision board.
NJPW set up this match so well. Earlier this week, we saw Sanada step up his in-ring performance and show that he could go toe to toe with Okada. So he has the athletic ability, he seems to have gained the passion (even though he’s too cool to let it show much), he gets a badass entrance, and the video package shows he could also be a wedding date that would impress your parents and induce jealously in your friends from high school who are rapidly getting married at ages younger than the national average. In sum, they put him over as champion material! But while he’s a potential Yung Champion, Okada is “the superman, the superhuman IWGP Champion” who is now focusing on immortality. It’s mensch vs. uber-mensch; who ya got?
The match is very good throughout. Champion and challenger look like physical equals. The beginning is what you expect from an Okada match, but what you expect from an Okada match is some of the best. The bout heats up about fifteen minutes in when Sanada hits the slingshot and the crowd loses their minds.
https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/962288092966244352
“Sanada” chants overpower “Okada” chants for most of the match, although it sounds 50/50 at times. I don’t know if that’s more out of support for Sanada and/or L.I.J. or opposition to Okada. When he retains, members of the audience actually yell, “Go home!” at Okada. He says, per Reddit user TheDamnNumbersGame, that he will in a second, then cuts a promo telling his challengers, “You’re all strong, but I’m a million times stronger than all of you.” He’s going to compete in the New Japan Cup and fight the Junior Heavyweight Champion (fellow CHAOS member Will Ospreay, creating an opportunity for White to challenge later) at the upcoming anniversary show.
Okada has it all, and he wants more. As the announce team says, “every day history is made for Kazuchika Okada,” with his 600+ day title reign and most combined heavyweight title-holding days of any champion.
A weird thing about Okada’s 10 title defenses is that they’ve all been at least 30 minutes, and it’s not like Okada’s some strategic genius who intentionally plays the long game. It’s created this strange dynamic where he’s such a dominant champion, but so many people have gotten so close to dethroning him. He’s this morally neutral, untouchable-but-so-close-to-touchable, godlike figure reigning over NJPW now, and when he loses that title everyone is going to lose their minds.
The New Beginning in Osaka ended with CHAOS maintaining their status quo dominance, but it also introduced so much potential for change. I’m so excited to see what happens next when — oh, just kidding, it’s Honor Rising on the 23rd, so first they’re going to fight Ring of Honor people!
