THE REVIEW
New Japan returns with its first major pay-per-view show since Wrestle Kingdom, headlined by the highly anticipated rematch between Tanahashi and AJ Styles.
The goal of the night was to build the Bullet Club back up as the controlling force of the promotion. AJ Styles won back the heavyweight title while Kenny Omega retained the juniors title, and both the Young Bucks and Gallows/Anderson were victorious in regaining their respective tag belts.
This show basically put them right back to where they were for most of 2014. If you’re an American fan tuning in for the first time after seeing Jim Ross and Matt Striker call the Tokyo Dome show, having recognizable names on top will certainly help ease the transition into the Japanese wrestling scene. Seasoned fans may be growing weary, however, as we’re starting to see a lot of the same programs, and most of the big acts haven’t really changed in years.
Osaka, known for its Chicago-like, rowdy wrestling fans, hosted the first of two “New Beginning” pay-per-views, with the second going live from Sendai on Saturday at 4 a.m. ET. While the crowd remained more vocal than your average Japanese wrestling crowds, you could tell Osaka wasn’t particularly impressed with the card. There was a tremendous amount of talent in action, leading to quite a few decent matches, but nothing really came across as “must see”.
It was quite like WWE’s annual Extreme Rules show, where you expect a few good matches, but not enough has evolved in the few weeks since WrestleMania to help the card stand out on its own. Even with three title changes, it felt more like a reset button to the status quo – whether or not that’s a good thing comes down to personal preference.
The first half of the show was largely forgettable, with one match between Honma and Ibushi that stood out. This may be bad news for Honma fans hoping his Wrestle Kingdom pinfall was putting him back on track – and maybe it was – but Ibushi picked up the win to get a little momentum back after his loss to Nakamura in January. You know, if you can call wrestling a potential Match of the Year a “loss”.
The triple threat tag match, featuring three of the four juniors teams from the Tokyo Dome opener, was noticeably toned down. The action picked up with the final minutes, but the match felt intentionally slow. It’s possibly that’s the result of having seen these teams work each other dozens of times between the U.S. and Japan, as you notice more when things don’t “click” properly. As usual, there were still a few spots to take your breath away.
I was anticipating the rematch between Kenny Omega and former champion Taguchi, but felt they spent too much time trying for strange comedy – and/or “butt stuff” – and the end result was nowhere near as good as their last encounter. While the main event was the best match of the show, Styles and Tanahashi have also had better matches together. And that’s ultimately the theme here – we’ve seen all this stuff before, and we’ve seen it done better.
The rest of the Osaka show was there to build up the Sendai event, and did an adequate job. Chase Owens and Rob Conway went over Jushin Liger and Tenzan to build their singles matches for the two NWA titles. Nagata and Nakamura had some quality exchanges prior to what will hopefully be a show-stealing main event on Saturday.
We also got a taste of what New Japan may have in store with Mascara Dorada, on loan from CMLL after the Fantasticamania tour. He and the Time Splitters ran off the Bullet Club after they put Taguchi through a chair with a double Indytaker. This was a great build for the 6-man tag match at the Sendai show, and we got a tease of a potential IWGP junior program between Dorada and Omega.
For as down as I’ve been in this review, I actually enjoyed The New Beginning in Osaka quite a bit. None of the matches bombed, most were middle-of-the-road, but everything was at least some shade of entertaining. The biggest complaint was just a sense of watching too many re-runs. Most of the promotion’s evolution is happening in the mid-card, and while some top acts never get old (looking at you, Nakamura), I hope 2015 is the year they start creating some new challengers for IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
I look forward to Saturday’s show as they did a fine job building that up, and following that all roads lead to the New Japan Cup in March.
