New Japan holds a few New Beginnings every February, but this year the name had more weight as the right of wrestling fans in Japan to loudly freak out over the pro wrestling in front of them was finally being restored. For the last three years, live reactions were limited to a rhythmic clapping that stopped germs and followed government regulations but robbed matches of atmosphere and personally bummed me out. It would be that way no more. Naito vs. Umino, Hiromu vs. YOH, Okada vs. Shingo… prepare for noise.
NJPW The New Beginning in Sapporo ~ 2 Snow Battles Night 1 (2/4/23)
1. Great-O-Khan vs. Oskar Leube
Young Oskar’s tall and pale frame in black trunks vs. Great O-Khan being Great O-Khan was a more visually interesting experience than usual for an opener. Judge this book by the cover. **
2. Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado, Ren Narita & Ryohei Oiwa vs. EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi, SHO & Dick Togo
Suzuki ended 2022 by breaking up Suzuki-gun, though he’s still a popular guy who added fuel to an otherwise skippable House of Torture match. Ren scrapped with EVIL and tapped out Togo, so it was a solid night out for him too. **
3. Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Yuto Nakashima vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste & Kosei Fujita
Zack Sabre moved on from Suzuki-gun to become the new leader of TMDK, a crew of Australian wrestlers who all seem individually talented but have never settled into any kind of consistent role… until now? Maybe? Goto sold the leg. Haste spiked himself on a bulldog. Ishii and ZSJ teased their future match. The Noojies wrapped up it up. ***
4. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tama Tonga, Hikuleo & Master Wato vs. Jay White, KENTA, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo
The boys were boys-ing around. Tana sold the leg. Wato and Taiji got some turns. ELP’s new haircut makes him look like a third Paul brother. ***
5. Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, Ryusuke Taguchi & YOH vs. Shingo Takagi, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI
Besides Okada and Shingo, Hiromu and YOH getting a few turns was the highlight of this unremarkable match. **3/4
6. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Francesco Akira & TJP [c] vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI
Tons of wrestlers can wrestle for 20 minutes, but only the real ones are putting in The Work for all of those minutes. Kanemaru is one of those ones, with panic in his eyes when TJP found a way out of a headscissors and the brilliant audacity to do leg work during the opening babyface fire. TJP and Akira caught DOUKI in a beatdown of assorted high-flying and double team moves before a hot tag from Kanemaru where he immediately went back to the leg. It was only when Kanemaru got flashy with a moonsault that he lost control, which led to a fun back-and-forth finish that had a great peak when Kanemaru did hit the moonsault. Great match. ****
7. Taichi vs. Will Ospreay
Kind of a G1 Climax match in February, or maybe it was more Champion Carnival — either way they were going full-contact on every elbow, boot, kick… even Ospreay’s plancha was stiff. Ospreay wrestled like a credible heavyweight and Taichi stayed competitive with his bag of All Japan tribute moves, which tonight included a straight-up Ganso Bomb. It was like the second or third move of the closing stretch, which bordered on ridiculous but stayed fun as: Taichi stood up after a poison rana, avoided an OsCutter and did the Taichi Clutch for 2; Ospreay nailed Hidden Blade but Taichi refused the StormBreaker so Ospreay settled for a backdrop driver; Taichi cracked Ospreay’s cheek with an elbow but Ospreay elbowed back, nailed another Hidden Blade and successfuly hit StormBreaker for 3. ****
8. Tetsuya Naito vs. Shota Umino
Big spot for Shota Umino, who didn’t rise to the occasion against Naito who had nothing to lose having another Just Fine main event. They played some notes of a good match — early matwork and stalling, mid-match neck work and late-match counters — they also missed or skipped so many of them that it felt like the noise restrictions were back. Do not watch this. ***
NJPW The New Beginning in Sapporo ~ 2 Snow Battles Night 2 (2/5/23)
1. Will Ospreay, Great-O-Khan, Francesco Akira & TJP vs. Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku
This was a shorter and maybe more efficient version of matches wrestled yesterday by everyone but O-Khan and TAKA. They were good matches. So was this. ***
2. Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado, Ren Narita & Yuto Nakashima vs. EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi, SHO & Dick Togo
This was a rematch from yesterday, going back-to-back in unremarkable besides El Desperado’s hot tag pop and the match’s last minute, where Ren got fed up with the House’s Torturing, demanded a tag, and beat Yujiro’s ass with three moves. I think he officially formed the Sons of Strong Style stable with Suzuki after this, but I could’ve dreamed that too. **3/4
3. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Master Wato vs. KENTA & Taiji Ishimori
After KENTA and Taiji gave Wato a low effort beating, Tanahashi made a low effort hot tag. **3/4
4. Tama Tonga, Hikuleo & Jado vs. Jay White, El Phantasmo & Gedo
Happy to report that tall guy Hikuleo is finding his feet and did a nice hot tag, big boot, double clothesline and other tricks. Tama and ELP nearly got something going after that before Jado and Gedo tagged in to shut it down. **3/4
5. Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, Shota Umino & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, SANADA & BUSHI
Naito vs. Umino ended up so much better as the side-plot of an 8-man tag instead of a main event singles match, especially with the brief contributions of everyone else. ***1/4
6. IWGP Tag Team Title: Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI [c] vs. Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste
This was good, basic, by the books, a textbook match… boring. What it lacked in flavor it made up for in seeing Bishamon get to do all their things before a loud and appreciative crowd after powering through the COVID years to become the centerpiece of New Japan’s tag division and a legitimately great team. TMDK is trying things but still too vanilla, though Mikey’s confusion over the fight left in YOSHI at the end was a good bit. YOSHI took a bump at the end so good my son said “he died” too. Memories. ***1/2
7. NJPW WORLD TV Title: Zack Sabre Jr. [c] vs. Tomohiro Ishii
They packed this with holds and counter-holds that felt more desperate as time went on, courtesy of two wrestlers who are very good at emoting that they are freakin’ trying here! If they weren’t fighting to keep on or get out of a hold they probably just got hit with a backdrop suplex or a brainbuster or something. I don’t think New Japan needed a TV Title but the 15-minute time limit was put to good use here by two guys very good at maximizing their minutes in a wrestling match. Ishii’s bloody mouth added to the urgency, and other than his random Code Red they kept it grounded and squirrelly almost all the way to 15. ****
8. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Hiromu Takahashi [c] vs. YOH
Main Event Hiromu is a treat, though there’s a ceiling against an unproven, uncharismatic up-and-comer like YOH. They kept it very New Japan with a chop exchange and rail spot and countout tease before bringing out the bigger moves, which they fought over like proper sons of bitches for a quality finish that felt dramatic even if Hiromu was an easy bet. Good… but also very basic and safe… bad… good.. ***1/2
NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka (2/11/23)
1. Toru Yano & Oskar Leube vs. Great-O-Khan & Aaron Henare
Young Oskar was kicked in the thigh early in this match, an unexceptional thing were it not for the fact that he was still showing signs damage when he tagged in a few minutes later. As a wrestling connoisseur, I appreciated that. **1/4
2. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI vs. Shota Umino, Tomoaki Honma, Tiger Mask IV & Ryusuke Taguchi
Umino was still fired up from last week’s mediocre Naito match, though he brought a real group of bums to fight with and even ended up getting kicked around for a while. After the match Lio Rush showed up and challenged Hiromu for the IWGP Jr. Title. **3/4
3. Taiji Ishimori vs. Master Wato
Master Wato almost won Taiji Ishimori’s IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title at Wrestle Kingdom last month until Hiromu Takahashi did instead. That was a 4-Way match for a title; this was a singles match for no title and like their match last October), it was pretty good. Maybe should’ve been better with the crowd and everything. It was the kind of match that happens when you book Taiji Ishimori, a world-traveled and trained veteran ever-present over the last two decades on his last big run who is coasting, against Master Wato, who wants to be a Grandmaster. Wato’s offense looks smoother, more confident… towards the end he did a bit where he stood tall like he was about to Hulk-Up and it didn’t seem ridiculous at all. Taiji stayed on his arm all match (he Brouge kicked it!) with occasional breaks for a sliding German suplex or 450 splash or something. ***1/4
4. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. KENTA
Tanahashi (+ big hair) encouraging the crowd to chant and their loud boos when KENTA attacked him from behind were fun, but then they wrestled for 14 more minutes. Their miles are showing but they still pulled off an old-fashioned very good match. ***1/2
5. NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Title: EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi & SHO [c] vs. Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado & Ren Narita
Hey! Everyone loves a NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Title match. It’s a 6-man tag team match, but for a title! Here the Ren Narita push of 2023 once again ended a so-so match with a cool moment that sort of made it all worth it, as Suzuki did some of the greatest crowd work you’ll ever see getting the crowd revved up for Ren’s hot tag. The Son of Strong Style sold for Yujiro briefly for some reason before he got it together and locked up the House of Torture in submissions with the boys to win the titles. ***1/4
6. Loser Leaves Japan Match: Hikuleo vs. Jay White
Jay bumped all over the place for big Hik while the Hik himself has charmingly improved to the point that by the end of this 25-minute send-off for Switchblade Jay White enough had happened that it had frustratingly redeemed whoever decided it was going to run that long in the first place. And so Jay went off to the Bang Bang Gang… ***1/2
7. NEVER Openweight Title: Tama Tonga [c] vs. El Phantasmo
Pretty good match, but so was Ishimori/Wato three matches ago — aim higher. Highlights, maybe: ELP’s missed quebrada to a tope suicida to Asai moonsault; the compelling atmosphere cooked up when ELP tried to elbow his way out of a Stun Gun that Tama was too stubborn to let go of. ***1/4
8. IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada [c] vs. Shingo Takagi
Almost three years ago in the G1 Climax 2020, Okada vs. Shingo was the first pair to have a truly great match under the noise restrictions (what cemented it was when some people forgot them). They had three more too — in the New Japan Cup, for the IWGP World Title, and at Wrestle Kingdom — a chemistry so brainy and brawny you could watch it on mute and still see the greatness. This was great too, though maybe handicapped by my own high expectations from their inhuman ability to go all out under the noise restrictions. Each brought their own sort of confidence to Osaka, Shingo with his chest out from the bell while Okada paced himself and waited to strike.
Shingo took advantage with a death valley driver on the floor early, and Okada accepted the beating that followed until he was able to hit a tombstone piledriver on the floor — just bros doing transitions on floors. Okada worked the neck and built to the Rainmaker, while Shingo sold and occasionally roared back with something like a punch to headbutt to kneedrop combo. When the crowd began chanting Shingo’s name, it fired him up, pissed the increasingly surly Okada off, and led to a big time finish as Okada kept bringing the pain only for Shingo to keep surprising Okada until he just couldn’t get up. ****1/4
Happy Thoughts: Kanemaru’s challenge for the IWGP Jr. Tag Titles, Taichi vs. Ospreay, ZSJ vs. Ishii and Okada vs. Shingo are all worth watching checking out. The rest was pretty dull, even with the welcome (if not reluctant) return of crowd noise. Probably would’ve been better as one single show, actually. 3.0 / 5.0
