While you can’t call it anything but a good card, there is a feeling of sameness in New Japan Pro Wrestling right now in the aftermath of the company’s most successful event in more than a dozen years at the Tokyo Dome.
They need an infusion of new talent to spark the main event scene and also the fans, as noted by the first major PPV show since the Dome, the 2/11 New Beginning in Osaka.
The story of the show was that The Bullet Club was taking over, winning all four championship matches, with three belts changing hands, including the big one as A.J. Styles beat Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP heavyweight title. In addition, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows regained the IWGP heavyweight tag team titles from Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata, who had won them on the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show. The Young Bucks won the IWGP jr. tag titles in a three-way over champions Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly, as well as Alex Shelley & Kushida, winning the match when Kushida was pinned, so Fish & O’Reilly never lost them clean. Both teams are expected to feud over both the IWGP jr. and ROH tag titles in a big program through the year.
Most matches were good, but nothing was off the charts, and the crowd, in what is traditionally New Japan’s hottest arena, felt cold. Perhaps it’s because this was almost a transition card, coming off the Dome, with Osaka fans know that the big one coming up is the return to Osaka Jo Hall in May. Still, from a numbers standpoint, while not sold out as far in advance as some shows, they still sold out and turned people away once again, with a crowd reported at 7,500 fans (which is a slightly inflated number but the place was packed and it was close to 7,000) and it was believed to have set the company’s record gate for the building.
In the main event, Styles won clean and solidly in 26:08 with the Styles Clash, destroying Tanahashi, who had to be helped out of the ring. It was a deliberate strong world title match,
but of their three singles matches, this one didn’t have the spark the first two had. It started slow and the crowd wasn’t that hot, although they were definitely with it as the match got rolling. The key part of the match was an unplanned spot where Tanahashi did his high fly flow outside the ring onto all of the members of The Bullet Club. In what on paper, with nine guys there to catch him, was about as safe a high fly as he’s done (certainly compared to the psycho version at the Dome show), it ended up being a bad one. He cracked heads with Matt Jackson, and both were busted open and knocked silly. It’s hard to tell what was selling and what wasn’t. Tanahashi seemed to remember all his spots and his execution was fine. Nobody seemed concerned about his possibly being knocked silly, but he was bleeding from a deep gash near the left eye. But he also never showed his usual fire in late comebacks, indicating something may have been wrong.
Styles, holding the title for a second time, is one of only three Americans to have held the title twice with Big Van Vader (three times) and Scott Norton (twice). Tanahashi’s loss ended his record setting seventh reign. He’s had more tenure with the title than anyone in history and his 28 successful defenses is well over Shinya Hashimoto’s previous mark of 20.
There were no major challenges issued after the title matches, with the exception of CMLL welterweight champion Mascara Dorada challenging Kenny Omega after Omega had retained the IWGP jr. title against Ryusuke Taguchi.
The show ended with a big Bullet Club celebration, with Karl Anderson handling most of the talking, putting the Bucks over as the greatest tag team in the world, and putting Styles over as the best wrestler in the world.
In Japan, the Tanahashi vs. Styles title match was billed to determine who was the best wrestler in the world. Styles is expected to make his first title defense at the Invasion Attack PPV on 4/15 from Sumo Hall in Tokyo, against the winner of the New Japan Cup single elimination tournament that takes place in March.
They may be saving the challenges for the second New Beginning PPV, on 2/14, at the Sun Plaza Hall in Sendai, which sold out in advance. The show, which airs live at 4 a.m. Eastern and 1 a.m. Pacific late Friday night/Saturday morning, has Yohei Komatsu & Tomoaki Honma & Satoshi Kojima vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Captain New Japan & Sho Tanaka, Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Tiger Mask & Mascara Dorada, Taguchi & Shelley & Kushida vs. Young Bucks & Omega, Jushin Liger vs. Chase Owens for the NWA jr. title, Rob Conway vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan for the NWA heavyweight title, Kota Ibushi & Tetsuya Naito vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano, Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi, Tanahashi & Goto & Shibata vs. Anderson & Gallows & Tama Tonga, Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe for the Never title and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Yuji Nagata for the IC title.
Makabe was injured this week, although we don’t know details. So the Osaka card was changed with Kojima taking his place in the six-man tag later in the show. Kojima was pulled from teaming in the third match with Liger & Tenzan vs. Owens & Conway & Jay White, who was scheduled for his PPV debut. But with Kojima pulled, it turned into a tag and White was only in the corner.
1. Sho Tanaka beat Yohei Komatsu in 5:38. Solid match. Everything they did looked good and the crowd was into it. They just weren’t given enough time and did the best they could
given the situation. Both are so technically good. Komatsu wound up with a busted mouth. Tanaka used a high slam into a half crab, which he turned into the Boston crab for the submission. **3/4
2. Tiger Mask & Mascara Dorada beat Manabu Nakanishi & Captain New Japan in 5:03. Nakanishi worked early with Dorada and talk about working at different speeds. Nakanishi did a Northern Lights suplex on both at the same time. Dorada pinned Captain with a reverse cradle. Fans were surprised to see Dorada win, but it made sense later in the show. Not much to his. *1/4
3. Rob Conway & Chase Owens beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Jushin Liger in 7:53. Bruce Tharpe came out with his Bruce Tharpe trading card. Conway looks like a star. Well, if that star is Randy Savage as from a look and mannerism standpoint, it’s a total copy. Crowd booed Conway when he used Tenzan’s Mongolian chops on him. That’s easy heat. Conway even tried to sell like Savage. It seemed like he was being careful since he was back far too fast from an appendectomy. Tharpe tripped Liger at one point. Liger set Owens up for a brainbuster, but Tharpe distracted Liger. Conway used the Ego trip on Liger and then on Tenzan. Owens then pinned Liger with a package piledriver, to set up their title match in three days. After the match, Tharpe buried Liger under the NWA flag. **
4. Kota Ibushi beat Tomoaki Honma in 12:15. Really good stuff here. A lot of cool stuff including a slow vertical suplex by Honma. Ibushi did a Pele kick while Honma was on the top rope. Honma did the Mascaras flying cross head-butt and then another one to the back of the head. Ibushi did a Frankensteiner out of nowhere and got to his feet and practically in the same move, hit a double foot stomp. Honma used a backward superplex off the top for a near fall as well as a tombstone piledriver. Ibushi won after a big clothesline, a high kick, a last rider power bomb and the Phoenix splash. Ibushi wanted a handshake after the match, but Honma refused and they ended up slapping each other in the face before Ibushi left. ***3/4
5. The Young Bucks regained the IWGP jr. tag titles over champs Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly and Alex Shelley & Kushida in 13:31. It started more slow and deliberate than these three usually go. In a sense this came off like they were told or listened to criticism that they go too fast, so they didn’t. But the problem is, that’s not what the crowd wants from them. Then they did the moves and dives. Another problem may be it’s these same guys against each other on every title match. Kushida did a rolling reverse cradle on Nick and then as Matt tried to break it up, Kushida German suplexed him at the same time. Fish dove on Nick and Shelley. Matt did a moonsault off the top onto all three. Kushida did a flip dive over the post onto everyone. Kushida did a moonsault into a triangle by O’Reilly. Fish then used a diving head-butt on Kushida and O’Reilly turned the triangle into an armbar. Nick did a 450 on Fish, and a moonsault off the apron on Shelley. Nick did a swanton off the top on Shelley and kept moving into a tope on Kushida. Kushida broke up a Meltzer driver attempt. The Bucks did the Indy-taker on Kushida but Fish saved. Matt superkicked O’Reilly and then they gave More Bang for Your Buck, which was Nick’s 450 and Matt following with a moonsault, on Kushida for the pin. ***½
6. Kenny Omega retained the IWGP jr. title over Ryusuke Taguchi in 13:58. The match was missing something. Taguchi just lacks charisma on his own. They did an angle because Taguchi does the butt bump and Omega was trying to injure his ass and Taguchi would say his ass was strong. Early in the match, Omega stuck a Bullet Club flag theoretically in Taguchi’s ass. Then he waved the flag around. Taguchi got the flag and stuck it up Omega’s ass. This didn’t get over so big. Matt Jackson pulled down the ropes and Taguchi took a bump over the top an Omega hit a plancha. Taguchi came back with a running flip dive. Crowd was dead. They did big moves. The most creative was Omega having Taguchi in the electric chair position, but Taguchi used a reverse Frankensteiner from there. Omega won clean with the One winged angel, kind of suddenly, which is a fireman’s carry into something close to a Death Valley bomb. Crowd took this down a notch. After the match, the Bucks and Omega put the boots to Taguchi, and then both Bucks came off the ropes with a triple-team stuff piledriver onto a chair. Dorada and Shelley made the save, with Dorada getting in Omega’s face and challenging for the title. That seemed to get over. **3/4
7. Kazuchika Okada & Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano beat Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi in 11:45. Most of the match was the Bullet Club working over Okada. Yano did some comedy spots and Sakuraba was a non-entity here. Okada did a comeback after back dropping out of a double arm suplex, hitting a high dropkick on Tonga, a dropkick and lariat to Fale, a Savage elbow on Tonga and he pinned Tonga after the rainmaker. They still seemed to be building an Okada vs. Fale singles match. **3/4
8. Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima & Tetsuya Naito beat Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi in 16:30. They mostly paired up with Nagata vs. Nakamura, Ishii vs. Kojima and Naito vs. Yoshi-Hashi. The crowd booed Naito most of the way when he was in on offense. Kojima vs. Ishii was good stuff. Good Nagata vs. Nakamura stuff to build their title match. Fans booed Naito once when he tagged in because they still wanted to see more Nagata vs. Nakamura. Very good match. Naito bled from the mouth and nose. After a series of reversals, Naito used a tornado DDT, a flying forearm and the Stardust press to pin Yoshi-Hashi. There was a Nagata/Nakamura staredown when it was over. ***½
9. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows beat Katsuyori Shibata & Hirooki Goto to regain the IWGP tag team titles in 16:26. Very good match as they had more time than they had at the Tokyo Dome. Gallows suplexed both at the same time. Anderson power bombed Goto on the apron and they teased a count out win. Shibata hot tagged in. Shibata was choking Anderson out on the apron when Goto went to clothesline Anderson, who moved, and clotheslined Shibata off the apron. But that was the only tease, as later in the match they did double-team spots where you figured it would happen again, and it didn’t. Anderson & Gallows did double-team moves on Goto including a gunstun back suplex combination. Goto also kicked out of Gallows’ tree slam. Shibata broke up the Magic killer and hot tagged in. He was unloading on both. They went for a double-team GTS on Gallows but Anderson kicked Goto. All sorts of big moves were blocked and reversed. Shibata got a choke on Gallows from a piggy back position, but Anderson then gave Shibata the gunstun. That was a cool setup. Goto & Shibata did a good final comeback, until Gallows superkicked Shibata and Anderson used the gunstun. They hit the Magic killer on this attempt and Gallows got the pin. ***3/4
10. A.J. Styles won the IWGP heavyweight title for a second time, beating Hiroshi Tanahashi in 26:08. The entire Bullet Club that worked on this show, as well as Cody Hall, were in Styles’ corner, while Tanahashi only had Captain New Japan. So it didn’t look good. It started slow with Styles working a headlock, some tests of strength, and Tanahashi working Styles’ left arm. Styles dropkicked Tanahashi off the apron but missed a moonsault off the apron and landed on his feet. Tanahashi dropkicked Styles off the apron, but missed a flip cannonball off the apron and crashed on the floor. Styles distracted the ref and the entire Bullet Club put the boots to Tanahashi. They also beat down Captain when he tried to save. Styles kept control until Tanahashi started firing back. He used a senton off the middle rope
for a near fall, which nobody bought. Tanahashi went for the skin the cat spot, but the Bucks grabbed his legs. He kicked both Bucks off and head-scissored Styles and flipped him out of the ring. That set up the high fly flow to the floor spot where Tanahashi was injured. He was bleeding like crazy at first, but the blood dried as the match went on. Styles didn’t work the cut to make it worse. There are two schools of thought on that. With that kind of blood rare these days in New Japan since they, like most companies, have banned the blade, one argument is to accentuate “lucky juice” by working on it and maknig it heavy. The other is that between infectious diseases and what modern wrestling is, that blood is from the past and don’t focus on it. Tanahashi came back with a cross-arm German and a regular German suplex. Styles distracted the ref and gave Tanahashi a low blow. Yujiro Takahashi distracted the ref again, but this time Tanahashi laid out Styles with a low blow. Later, Styles used the KENTA series. When Styles went for a piledriver, Tanahashi backdropped his way out. Styles went for a second enzuigiri, but Tanahashi instead used a dragon screw on Styles’ other leg for a near fall. He hit the sling blade and went for the high fly flow, but Styles got his knees up. Styles went for a springboard 450 but Tanahashi got his knees up. Tanahashi went to the top for another high fly flow, but Styles got up, ran to the ropes and Tanahashi lost his balance standing on the top rope and got crotched. Styles threw elbows into the cut. He went for a top rope Frankensteiner, but Tanahashi blocked it. Tanahashi teased doing the Styles clash off the middle rope but Styles kept kicking him as a block. Styles landed the Pele kick while Tanahashi was still sitting on the top rope. Tanahashi kept blocking Styles clash attempts. Finally Styles hooked it, but instead dropped Tanahashi on the top of his head like a tombstone piledriver. Then he gave Tanahashi a Bloody Sunday DDT, and followed with the Styles clash clean in the middle. Tanahashi had to be helped out of the ring and it was portrayed like he was thoroughly defeated, no slip on a banana peel, and while there was Bullet Club interference in the mach, none of it had anything to do with the finish. The show ended with a big Bullet Club celebration as Anderson put over the entire group. ****
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