The New Beginning in Osaka Review

David Finlay vs. Jay White

This was about as good as a ‘young lions’ match as we’re ever going to see given that their always very short. These guys are really technically sound and this match, in hindsight, was one of my favourite things on the show. Jay White beat Finlay by catching him in a half crab, then full crab and finally the lion tamer.

Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Gedo, YOSHI-HASHI & Kazushi Sakuraba

I’m not going to lie there was some buffering issues on the stream and I didn’t see this whole thing. I am going to bet that this was a fairly standard tag match for this spot in the card: solid work but forgettable, short and pretty much exists to get some more stars on the card.

Edit: I was exactly right. The team of Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask & Jushin Thunder Liger won after Gedo tapped out to Taguchi’s ankle lock.

Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi

Again, a solid but unremarkeable tag match that’s pretty much here to fill space rather than meaningfully progress any story. The crowd seemed to like it and all the guys are over. Tenzan and Kojima won after a 3-D on Nakanishi before Kojima hit a lariat for the 123.

Los Ingobernables de Japón (EVIL, Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI) vs. Juice Robinson, Michael Elgin & KUSHIDA

This was a good match and better than the preceding tag matches. Michael Elgin is really quite over with the crowd; it helps that he gets to deliver his big power moves to such detestable characters as Los Ingobernables. The finish to the match saw BUSHI spray mist into the face of KUSHIDA, taking him out of the match, before EVIL hit the STO on Juice Robinson for the win.

I honestly don’t know what their plans for Naito are heading into the rest of 2016 but he’s obviously a cut above his stable mates and his performance in the G1 last summer show that he deserves a better spot. Considering the performance of Goto in the main event (which we’ll be getting to shortly) I don’t see why that couldn’t have been Naito’s place. The only reason I can think of is that we’ve seen Naito/Okada a fair few times now.

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship / Toru Yano, Mark Briscoe & Jay Briscoe (c) vs. BULLET CLUB (Yujiro Takahashi, Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga)

The Bullet Club won the titles after a 10 minute match that never felt like it properly got going. It didn’t help that the crowd were pretty dead and I think Bad Luck Fale is a horrible wrestler so that put me off too. Tama Tonga was the star here and it’s great he finally has a title in NJPW, he hit Yano with the Headshrinker DDT for the win.

I think that if the plan was for Bullet Club to win these titles anyway then they shouldn’t have bothered putting them on Yano and the Briscoes to begin with. A win at Wrestle Kingdom for the Bullet Club would have least got the titles some heat.

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship / The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) (c) vs. ReDragon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) vs. Ricochet & Matt Sydal.

I said on Twitter that this had the possibility of stealing the show if they are given enough time and tell a coherent story. Well, I eat my words because I was quite disappointed though at this stage it was the best match on the card barring the opener. There was a cool spot in which Kyle O’Reilly was thrown to the outside and caught by Cody Hall who proceeded to run to the back to take him out of the match. Ricochet and Matt Sydal won after tandem Shooting Star Press’. I think Ricochet is the most gifted athlete in all of pro wrestling right now and I am pleased him and Sydal won the titles but this turned into another free for all that really didn’t tell a story or even give us enough to warrant a rematch.

There’s nothing wrong with these type of ‘spot fest’ matches, and I quite enjoy watching some of the high flying and athleticism, but at this point the Jr Tag Titles have been passed around so many times it’s becoming meaningless. I would love to see Ricochet and Matt sydal take these titles and have normal 2v2 tag matches that mean something as there are a lot of talented teams working in NJPW right now.

NEVER Openweight Championship / Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Shibata beat Ishii with a huge penalty kick to retain the title. Their match at Wrestle Kingdom was one of my favourite matches of the year so far but I actually think this was better and is absolutely the best match on this card. Before the match Shibata said that he will not wear the belt until he has defended it because until he defends it then it is not his title. That was great and statements like that just get him even more over with the audience.

This match, just like their last encounters, was so hard hitting and stiff. Chops, slaps, kicks, suplexes and submissions are pretty much the only moves they execute for nearly 20 minutes but it felt much shorter. The slaps in this match are some of the hardest I have ever seen in a pro wrestling match ever.

There’s something to be said about this type of match, especially given the news of Daniel Bryan’s retirement, and how much a wrestler should put their bodies on the line to entertain the fans. There were a couple of headbutt spots in this match that made me cringe but looked much safer than what they were doing at Wrestle Kingdom; small wins I guess.

BULLET CLUB (Kenny Omega, Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe

AJ Styles wrestled his last match in NJPW in a tag match the night after Wrestle Kingdom 10. Kenny Omega, AJ’s partner for that match and BULLET CLUB stable mate, attacked him and announced he was going to the be the new leader. Omega was the one to pin Nakamura that night and said that he deserved an Intercontinental title shot. Nakamura, also leaving for WWE, was forced to vacate the title and Hiroshi Tanahashi was announced as his replacement. That match will take place at The New Beginning in Niigata on 14th, hence, we have this match now to tide us over.

So this tag match was really about progressing that story and it did that quite well. Omega won with the One Winged Angel on Honma. Afterwards the BULLET CLUB went to work on Tanahashi delivering chair shots to the injured arm and Omega even hit Tanahashi’s own High Fly Flow. The match itself wasn’t anything special but the post match beat down was a good angle.

I think that ‘injuring’ Tanahashi was the best way to go here; Omega is not going to beimmediately over and credible as a threat to Tanahashi. However, if Tanahashi is injured then it gives a reason as to why Omega may initially win the title but also gives them room to continue the story for Tana’s retribution. We’ll see how it goes, I think Omega is a fantastic wrestler and it would be great if he could be one of the next top gaijin in NJPW.