NJPW "The New Beginning" in Osaka & Sendai - 02/11/15 & 02/14/15

[Ringo]

NJPW "THE NEW BEGINNING IN OSAKA", 11.02.2015 (NJPW World)
Osaka BODYMAKER COLOSSEUM

1. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title, 3 Way Match: Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish (c) vs. KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley vs. Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson
2. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Kenny Omega (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
3. IWGP Tag Team Title: Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows
4. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. AJ Styles


NJPW "THE NEW BEGINNING IN SENDAI", 14.02.2015 (NJPW World)
Sendai Sun Plaza Hall

1. NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger (c) vs. Chase Owens
2. NWA World Heavyweight Title: Rob Conway (c) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
3. NEVER Openweight Title: Togi Makabe (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii
4. IWGP Intercontinental Title: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Yuji Nagata

[Fanny Batter]

Does New Beginning translate differently? Because the first 3 matches there aren't a new beginning haha. Tanahashi vs. Styles should be excellent in Osaka and getting rid of one of the teams should let the Jr. tag match breath a bit more. Night 2 with Nagata and Nakamura should be some surly pro wrestling, looking forward to that. And the Makabe/Ishii rematch should bring the violence.

[Psycho666Soldier]

A lot of rematches like usual, but at least 3 or 4 of those matches should deliver. Most looking forward to the NEVER and IWGP matches, but Nakamura/Nagata could pull out something special.

[Hero!]

Looking forward to the NWA title matches just to see Bruce Tharpe Desu!

[Tainted Eclipse]

Eh, nothing interesting here. Tanahashi/AJ and Nakamura/Nagata could end up being good matches though. Didn't Nakamura and Nagata have a good match in the G1?

[Ringo]

Looking forward to the top three singles title matches. Have a feeling AJ & Tanahashi are going to really kill it this time. And Nakamura/Nagata is bound to be good. Rematches obligatory but I'm ready for something fresh for Meiyu & Kenny. With so few options in the tag and jr. scenes I'm not sure what the chances of that are any time soon though.

Down for a NWA title shot for ol' Tenzan. Don't get what's happening with Liger as he challenged Tiger Mask and their site said he would be next. I'd rather something fresh for Meiyu & Kenny though. With so few options in the tag and jr. scenes I'm not sure what the chances of that are any time soon though.

Forever Hooligans took the fall at WK so they're out. Have another take the fall here and then they can do a straight forward tag on the next big show with the remaining challengers.

[Defrost]

Meltzer all but said AJ is winning the title back

[Tainted Eclipse]

Sounds dumb.

[Matthew]

I'm ready for something fresh for Meiyu & Kenny. With so few options in the tag and jr. scenes I'm not sure what the chances of that are any time soon though.

[Defrost]

I am so all in for Meiyu vs TMDK. For Kenny you have to assume KUSHIDA is the one that takes the title off of him.

[Hero!]

Why is AJ getting the title back?

[McBain]

Looking forward to the top three singles title matches. Have a feeling AJ & Tanahashi are going to really kill it this time. And Nakamura/Nagata is bound to be good. Rematches obligatory but I'm ready for something fresh for Meiyu & Kenny. With so few options in the tag and jr. scenes I'm not sure what the chances of that are any time soon though.

Down for a NWA title shot for ol' Tenzan. Don't get what's happening with Liger as he challenged Tiger Mask and their site said he would be next. I'd rather something fresh for Meiyu & Kenny though. With so few options in the tag and jr. scenes I'm not sure what the chances of that are any time soon though.

Forever Hooligans took the fall at WK so they're out. Have another take the fall here and then they can do a straight forward tag on the next big show with the remaining challengers.

You can say that again.

[McBain]

I'm ready for something fresh for Meiyu & Kenny. With so few options in the tag and jr. scenes I'm not sure what the chances of that are any time soon though.

Damnit, Matthew!

[Ringo]

derp

[Defrost]

Added for Osaka. Kota Ibushi vs Tomoaki Honma. Okada/Sakuraba/Yano vs Fale/Yujiro/Tonga

[Tainted Eclipse]

Ibushi/Honma is very interesting.

[ThE_GrEaT_GaM]

Ok so I googled puro esu Spirit and stumbled upon a website still hyping g1. No current shit There. You people are gonna have to excuse my lack of knowledge but when the fuck Was this card Put together? I just got done with wk9 couple days ago and the y already got their next event lined up and ready? Sucks to be me cause I had no idea. Besides the odd match here and There I have never stucked around for NJPW but I'm ready to sign a full time deal from now on. But I need guidance.

[Gibby]

So, to the person above, they put a lot of the card together not long after WK9. As there's no real regular television, they often run angles at big events and tease them out on house show tours (some of which get broadcast).

This is quite a mixed bag of a pair of cards which I guess is the peril of running split PPVs. I can handle the rematches though and in the case of the tags and NEVER I can't call them. Nakamura-Nagata will be a great match and because I don't care about draw I'm completely chill.

Ibushi-Honma sounds like a great idea. My view on this is that they'll be running a storyline for Ibushi where he starts at the bottom of the heavyweight division, beginning with the person theoretically at the bottom (based on G1 results) leading to a big title match down the line. I really like this idea and I think NJPW should look to take Nakamura-Ibushi to the same kind of level of Tanahashi-Okada.

It really feels like AJ is getting the title back UNLESS he's not re-signing. He's certainly much more over than he was at joining the company and now we can see how he works with a range of guys I think it will create real excitement.

Weirdest of the weekend: Yano & Sakuraba vs. Naito & Ibushi.

[Ringo]

NJPW "THE NEW BEGINNING IN OSAKA", 11.02.2015 (NJPW World)
Osaka BODYMAKER COLOSSEUM

1. Sho Tanaka vs. Yohei Komatsu
2. Satoshi Kojima, Tiger Mask & Mascara Dorada vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Captain New Japan & Jay White
3. Special Tag Match: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Rob Conway & Chase Owens
4. Tomoaki Honma vs. Kota Ibushi
5. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title, 3 Way Match: Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish (c) vs. KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley vs. Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson
6. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Kenny Omega (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
7. Special Six Man Tag Match: Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga
8.Special Six Man Tag Match: Yuji Nagata, Togi Makabe & Tetsuya Naito vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI
9. IWGP Tag Team Title: Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows
10. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. AJ Styles


NJPW "THE NEW BEGINNING IN SENDAI", 14.02.2015 (NJPW World)
Sendai Sun Plaza Hall

1. Satoshi Kojima, Tomoaki Honma & Yohei Komatsu vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Captain New Japan & Sho Tanaka
2. Tiger Mask & Mascara Dorada vs Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish
3. Ryusuke Taguchi, KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley vs. Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson
4. NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger (c) vs. Chase Owens
5. NWA World Heavyweight Title: Rob Conway (c) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
6. Tetsuya Naito & Kota Ibushi vs. Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba
7. Special Tag Match: Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi
8. Special Six Man Tag Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Tama Tonga
9. NEVER Openweight Title: Togi Makabe (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii
10. IWGP Intercontinental Title: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Yuji Nagata

I like the cards. Obviously all the best stuff on one card would be better but New Japan is good enough right now that I'll glady sit through two shows with some potential "filler".

Good to see some fresh faces involved - the new gaijin young boys Jay White and Cody Hall make their debuts on this tour (with White getting a match in Osaka) along with Mascara Dorada.

I figured Okada would face and beat Fale in singles to get his revenge here. Obviously not yet.

Ibushi/Honma! I like Gibby's Ibushi idea. I do wonder who is taking the NJC this year though.

[Defrost]

Ok so I googled puro esu Spirit and stumbled upon a website still hyping g1. No current shit There. You people are gonna have to excuse my lack of knowledge but when the fuck Was this card Put together? I just got done with wk9 couple days ago and the y already got their next event lined up and ready? Sucks to be me cause I had no idea. Besides the odd match here and There I have never stucked around for NJPW but I'm ready to sign a full time deal from now on. But I need guidance.

The day after Wrestle Kingdom they had a press conference where they announced their next set of title matches. Then after the Fantasticamania tour, where CMLL wrestlers come in from Mexico, they announced the rest of the matches on their website.

Usually how matches come together is that an angle is run on a ppv for the next ppv or the match is just announced and then they do angles on tv.

[Ringo]

Cody Hall's had his first couple of matches for New Japan on this tour.

Apparently there was an exchange on Twitter between Hall and Lance Storm about steroids in which Hall was defending their use. Doesn't bode well.

[ThE_GrEaT_GaM]

Is Okada still technically a heel? No?

[Defrost]

Is Okada still technically a heel? No?

Not really. No one in Chaos is really a heel anymore now that Iizuka went to Suzukigun. Yano is a wacky babyface tagging with Sakuraba. Shinsuke, Okada, and Ishii beloved. Everyone likes Jado and Gedo. Yoshi-Hashi gets face pops. So no he's not a heel.

[ThE_GrEaT_GaM]

Even watching the weekly Okada matches from a few years ago on AXS he comes off a bit cocky during his entrance but the crowd can't help but cheer him because he's constantly (along with his opponent) putting on these 5 star matches.

[Bad Collin]

I need AJ to win the title on Wednesday so it is the IWGP Champ v Will Ospreay at Rev Pro on Sunday.

[Fanny Batter]

We thinking any title changes on these cards then? I'm thinking they run with Styles again, the stuff with the Styles Clash has made him a bigger deal and he came off great at the Dome. Tanahashi has had the belt so many times that I'm not sure how much mileage he has left with it, whereas Styles is still very fresh and matches with Ibushi, Okada, Ishii, Nakamura (once he loses the IC title to presumably Ibushi) etc. are certainly desirable. If Tanahashi wins I think they'd have Okada win the New Japan Cup (beating Fale in the final) and have their final encounter at Invasion Attack, which to me is too soon.

Elsewhere, Ishii gets his belt back or they do a massive brawl and finish it with a dog collar match or something next time out. No chance Omega loses. I see Timesplitters eating the fall to Fish and O'Reilly, leading to the Young Bucks (by then ROH champions) against them in a regular tag with both sets of titles on the line.

Goto/Shibata obviously retain. Hoping for TMDK to get involved after.

Nakamura retains against Nagata. Wouldn't mind Nagata getting a short reign with a prestigious belt but Shinsuke is at a level where he shouldn't be losing matches like this.

[Ringo]

Just AJ I reckon. Okada to take it off of him at IA or Dominion.

[Defrost]

Seems too soon for Okada to take it from Styles at Invasion Attack. Okada is busy getting pinned by Fale on every show.

[Fanny Batter]

Ibushi vs. Nakamura at Invasion Attack I'd say, with Ibushi winning the New Japan Cup. Okada can get the belt after the G1, maybe he beats Styles late to cost him winning it, wins the belt in September, leads to Okada vs. Nakamura (G1 winner) at Wrestle Kingdom. I feel that's the main they need to run with.

[Defrost]

I think the big thing for Ibushi right now is building toward Golden Stardust challenging Meiyu Tag.

[thegoat]

Could someone who knows a decent amount about NJPW help me out... I am going to be in Tokyo the same time NJPW have Invasion Attack 2015 listed on their website. I don't know a whole lot about NJPW and thus wondered if someone can tell me if this is some kind of large PPV style event, and whether you would imagine it will be worth going to/ possible to get tickets for?

[Tainted Eclipse]

it's one of their biggest shows of the year, definitely worth going to

[Hero!]

Invasion Attack is usually a damn good show too. If I had the chance, I'd certainly go.

[Ringo]

Big arena, traditionally very good crowd. I'd imagine tickets would be easy enough to pick up.

[Matthew]

unless they were glued to the ground

[Defrost]

Could someone who knows a decent amount about NJPW help me out... I am going to be in Tokyo the same time NJPW have Invasion Attack 2015 listed on their website. I don't know a whole lot about NJPW and thus wondered if someone can tell me if this is some kind of large PPV style event, and whether you would imagine it will be worth going to/ possible to get tickets for?

You should go, and tickets should be possible to get.

[kangus]

Hmm, interesting.

[thegoat]

Well this is very good news. I will make some enquiries. My friend lives in Tokyo so I'm assuming if tickets are relatively readily available he should be able to book some. It seems like tickets go on sale pretty late to the shows I see currently on sale on their website.

Now I need to get myself up to date and into where NJPW are at, any suggestions for a good starting point?

[Bad Collin]

Wrestle Kingdom 9 with JR's English commentary is the place to start. Then you can see who you like and loads more of them on NJPW World. It's free in February.

Oh, and the NJPW tv show on AXS is amazing.

[Ringo]

http://enuhito.com/51974467.html

Ryusuke Taguchi will be challenging for IWGP Jr heavy weight championship against Kenny Omega next week NEW BEGINNING PPV. Last night of NJPW live show, Kenny used BulletClub flag to attack Taguchi's anus! Oh my god! Taguchi tweeted "My anus has been spread." And he declared to revenge Kenny Omega next week.

I am sure this is preventing Taguchi's Koshinaka style fight by Kenny. Taguchi uses Koshinaka style like Hip Attack these days. So Kenny attacked his anus. The fans are worry about his anus, then Taguchi replied "I am OK because My anus is enough trained.".

Special Single Match ~ My Anus Has Been Spread ~ KOSHINAKA STYLE FIGHT ~

[Morrison]

so how do i sign up for NJPW world? i think i made an account, but it asked for payment, and was stumped from there. more looking to just take advantage of the free february, for now.

[Ringo]

I think you have to add your payment details. They'll take the money and automatically refund at the end of February. I just read that on Twitter.

It's all here:



and there's a button at the bottom for google translating the whole page.

[Matthew]

awwww yeah

[Tainted Eclipse]

http://enuhito.com/51974467.html



Special Single Match ~ My Anus Has Been Spread ~ KOSHINAKA STYLE FIGHT ~

maybe if the stipulation is that only ass based offense is allowed they could have an interesting match

[Tainted Eclipse]

debating whether i want to try to get to sleep by 11 and wake up a couple hours later to see this live before i have to leave at 8 tomorrow morning. anyone watching this live here with it being on on such a weird day?

[Defrost]

The show isn't live on NJPW World

[Fanny Batter]

When's it going on, Frost man? Might pull a wrestling binge and do this and NXT tomorrow night if it's up by then.

[Defrost]

When they did the same thing with the World Tag League final it was like 12 hours after the show

[Fanny Batter]

Probably be up by this time tomorrow then? Looking forward to Honma/Ibushi and the main event, not really big on the mixture of rematches and "Road To The..." style throughout the rest of it but should be fun enough. Seems to me like they've run some of these 6 mans already on the tour though.

[Tainted Eclipse]

really, why not? its certainly the bigger day of the two.

[Defrost]

It's on TV Asahi's ippv service in Japan

[Ringo]

TV station has the rights to show it live apparently.

[Hero!]

Oh daaaamn son.

[Ringo]

It's up on NJPW World now

[Defrost]

Read the results. Have no interest in watching this show anymore.

[Tainted Eclipse]

Are we doing spoilers? I guess I'll mark them:

Alright, NJPW's booking is fucking awful, no two ways about it. A Bullet Club reset with all the belts. Just fucking terrible. WWE-level shit booking.

Honma/Ibushi was really great at least. Fucking awful results.

[Bad Collin]

Very odd show:

I enjoyed the junior tag match and Homna/Ibushi then skipped the rematches to get the main event which was disappointing. Did Tanahashi get concussed knocking heads with the Young Bucks guy? The rest of the match was very flat.

Giving the Bullet Club all the titles is pretty boring.

[Defrost]

Tanahashi and Styles have no chemistry

[Tainted Eclipse]

I think Tanahashi and Styles have a good match in them that is always sabotage by having to work around awful Bullet Club shit. Hopefully they're in the same block in the G1 and can do something good.

[Ringo]

Skipped the bulk of Omega/Taguchi and the 6-mans which I'll probably watch later and I'm up to the main event now, which I've already had spoiled. I did see Dorada challenge Omega which is cool. Young lions were typically good fun in the opener, the next two tag matches happened (Nakanishi vs Dorada is kind of interesting in a weird way), Ibushi/Honma was class.

But that fucking tag titles result. Absolutely maddening. Was really looking forward to Meiyu getting past BC and having some fresh match ups in the tag division (especially with the supposed new Ibushi/Naito team). Dumb dumb dumb.

[Fanny Batter]

The problem with the Bullet Club is that half of them are shit. No two ways about it. Half of them offer nothing. The Young Bucks are a fun tag team, Anderson is a reasonable mouthpiece, Kenny Omega is obviously very talented and Styles is absolutely world class. Then you've got Gallows, Takahashi, Fale, Tonga and Hall who are just dull pro wrestlers. Then the whole juvenile act. The juniors work it because they're scumbags with small man syndrome, but all the shiz cliz and crotch chops are absolutely ridiculous for the rest of them. "I'm not even nervous" is probably the all time worst thing a trash talking heel will ever say as well.

Styles should be the champion. He didn't defend the belt a lot last time, and if we can get defences against Shibata, Nakamura, Ibushi etc. then I'm more than game. Gallows and Anderson winning was just bollocks though. And you just know somebody crap like Curt Hawkins is going to attack Nakamura post match on Sunday and end up with that belt. At least it'll mean a more focused Shibata singles push hopefully, but the interest in tags is dead again.

[Defrost]

Makabe is out. His replacement is TOMOAKI HONMA. ISHII VS HONMA!

[Ringo]

They LOVED that.

[Ringo]

KojiMatsu is a cute team

[Ringo]

Jay White continues to look rather strong.

[Ringo]

Togi's been stripped and Ishii/Honma is for the belt, by the way. He must be in a bad way.

I know Ishii's winning but I'm going to bolieve.

[Defrost]

That six man was awesome. Loving the Dorada push.

[Defrost]

THARPE DESU!

[Ringo]

Yeah, lots of fun that was. The sunset flip powerbomb to the outside was nasty.

Popped big for Dorada pinning Kenny. He's the man.

Two annoying things: Chase Owens' dumb hat and Liger's fake theme music.

[Defrost]

Match was pretty good. Liger can't bridge like he used to though

[Ringo]

Yay. That was better than expected.

LIGERTIGER, I'm down.

[Defrost]

New jacket for THARPE DESU!

[Ringo]

This show's been fun so far... and I'm aware I'm saying that right before Conway/Tenzan.

[Ringo]

I'm actually enjoying this.

[Defrost]

Totally marking out over here

[Ringo]

ashbjnksamls;as

I didn't even want him to win when that match started but sorry, that was great!

Look at Tharpe!

Best Conway match ever?

First half of this show blows Osaka out the water.

[Defrost]

Oh my god this is so much better than Osaka so far

[Defrost]

Ibushi has Saitama tomorrow so I wonder if he takes it easy here

[Ringo]

Ibushi's theme isn't up to scratch imo. He should take Wataru Inoue's old one.

[Defrost]

Ibushi looks so much bigger than Naito

[Ringo]

Well I missed that match because NJPW World was freezing

[Defrost]

A few people seem to be having that problem.

[Defrost]

Holy shit Honma vs Ishii. Holy fucking shit.

[Defrost]

Well that finish was abrupt. Especially after how they built everything pre match.

[Ringo]

Jesus christ Ishii/Honma.

If anyone comes in this thread and hasn't seen this show or the results, I seriously recommend watching Ishii/Honma spoiler-free.

That was amazing. As soon as Ishii started agonising over his shoulder I lost my shit and really started to believe. All those nearfalls had me bad, and when Honma missed the Kokeshi off the top after doing some damage I thought he'd hit it and went crazy thinking that was it. I almost wanted to look away when it looked like Ishii was finishing him off but he just kept kicking out.

Mad match. That Kokeshi to the outside ffs.

[Hero!]

What happened to Makabe?

[Hero!]

Looked it up. Influenza? Really? That's a bitch. Oh well. Mon the Ishii!

[Bad Collin]

I couldn't watch this live either, about to watch Ishii v Homna now.

[Bad Collin]

That was mental, I thought one of them was going to die at certain points.

[Psycho666Soldier]

About halfway through the Osaka show, but I just read the spoiler about Meiyu Tag losing. That sucks and really takes away from the moment at Wrestle Kingdom, but I'll be happy if it means Shibata moves on to better things. Have him dominate with the NEVER or IC Title. Wouldn't mind seeing Ibushi get the IC title somewhere close to G1(preferably before) and it leading to a big WK match between Ibushi and Shibata. That could be a new rivalry for the future of NJPW.

Only problem is I'm not sure something like that is in the works, and any good slot they could put Shibata in is seemingly taken up by someone else. I guess of Golden Stardust are going for those tag belts, that could free up the Future IC Champ slot.

[Tainted Eclipse]

what the fuck? i would have stayed up if i knew there was a honma/ishii match.

[Fanny Batter]

Gonna have to watch this later, booking-wise it seems world's better than Osaka.

[Gibby]

Sendai was very good! A lot of fun indeed. No real angles at the top of the card but whatever.

I wrote a review http://fujiwaraarmbar.blogspot.co.uk/

but here is a TL;DR version

- Opener was a fine opener, well done openers
- Jay White looked good against reDRagon, Tiger Mask also competed
- Bullet Club Junior Section against US-Japan-Mexico Face Alliance was fun, Dorada got to shine.
- Liger had his working boots on and schooled Chase.
- Tenzan and Conway was genuinely excellent and no this is NOT a rib. See it!
- Golden Stardust v Yanoraba was fine mostly-comedy, Ibushi wasn't going to do much with his DDT show tomorrow.
- Tacosmaker v Double Fale was boring
- Goto-Bata-Hashi v KISSClub was a decent trios outing, plenty of energy.
- Ishii-Honma was completely fucking mental but possibly a shade too long.
- Main event was good, perhaps they didn't quite get it right but still a worthy main event.

[Bad Collin]

Boycott quote to open, that's strong work.

[Tainted Eclipse]

honma/ishii was great but not as good as their two matches last year. everyone who says honma should keep losing because thats why hes over are the worst people in the world.

[Ringo]

Did you know the result going in?

[Tainted Eclipse]

yeah. i guess i can see how not knowing would help for some moments down the stretch but in general it just lacked the energy of their matches last year.

[Ringo]

That obviously added a lot for me - but thinking about it I'd compare it favourably with the Dontaku & G1 matches. Above Dontaku, probably a notch above G1 too.

[DDT]

Just saw Honma vs. Ishii (literally the only match I had any interest in) and I agree with the assessment; of course it was good because, it's Honma vs. Ishii, how can it be bad? At the same time, it went on too long, and it literally sucked the crowd out of a match they genuinely cared about. Might give the rest a watch based on Gibby's review. I'm always down for good Tenzan matches.

[Psycho666Soldier]

Finally finished New Beginning in Osaka. I actually found myself enjoying the Styles/Tanahashi match than I expected. Maybe it's because I knew the result. First half was meh, second half was picking up some steam, and the long stretch of turnbuckle work leading into that finishing sequence was nuts. Not the best match of the night, but stronger than I expected going in.