NJPW The New Beginning In Sapporo 2020 - Day 1 01/02
CHAOS (SHO, Will Ospreay & YOH) & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Suzuki-gun (DOUKI, El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr.)
Good match. Felt like an extended version of what he would normally get. Ospreay and ZSJ got a long stretch together, training the audience for some of his signature spots. El Desperado had some nice shine spots as well. Fun match. ***1/4
Robbie Eagles & Ryu Lee vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi)
Another really fun match setting up Lee vs Hiromu once more. Their lucha chop sequence was awesome and they gave us a nice little taster of what's to come. ***1/4
BULLET CLUB (Jay White & KENTA) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA & Tetsuya Naito)
Oof, this was a TOTAL miss. I don't see any magic between these four guys. Hopefully the matches can prove me wrong because this was pretty dry and lifeless. Compared to the prior magic, the interaction weren't hot regardless of wrestler in at time, no spark or resemblance of a good match. **
Jon Moxley & Kazuchika Okada vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki & Taichi)
Very fun match. The brawling on the outside was a bit goofy but I think it worked for these two wrestlers. The Taichi and Okada stuff was good although they really got heated up after the match in an awesome post match angle where Taichi locked on a stretch plum. ***1/4
Tomohiro Ishii vs. EVIL
This was a bit better than last year's Dontaku match since they switched it up a little but it still came off so dry and uninspired. EVIL just doesn't shine with Ishii and they can't tickle that good spot for me. Good closing stretch but a boring lead up harms even the best bits of matches. **1/2
NEVER Openweight Title Match: Hirooki Goto (c) vs. Shingo Takagi
This was an awesome smash-crash main event. Both guys hit super hard but there was some really lovely power moves incorporated into the match like the Shouten Kai and the Made In Japan. It built really well into the finish which was played upon at the New Dash. ***¾
NJPW The New Beginning In Sapporo 2020 - Day 2 02/02
RevPro British Heavyweight Title Match: Will Ospreay vs Zack Sabre Jr ©
Real good start to the match with ZSJ initially staying on top, trapping Ospreay’s arm with Ospreay having to try and use his athletic ability to escape that, and then turns the tables on Zack and lock on a submission of his own. They played of their old matches similar to Ospreay vs Scurll or ZSJ vs Scurll. And they adapted it well to the Japanese Audience, sometimes they went counter heavy but those flurries were brief. For the most part they took their time, incorporated more strikes and stunk the submissions in a bit more than normal - a common criticism that ZSJ matches usually has. ZSJ has some incredible counters towards the latter stages of the match for his submissions, the crowd and commentators bit on them super hard as well, adding to the drama. ***3/4
Taichi vs Kazuchika Okada
This had a short but really good build with Taichi attacking Okada after their warm up match the night prior and locking on a tight looking Stretch Plum. In such a short build it feels like the most interesting thing in the company right now. There is usually two Taichis. Serious Taichi and goofy Taichi. This was a mix of Taichi doing dastardly things, like using Miho Abe as protection, brawling on the outside and using the cables to choke Okada but there is a viciousness to it. It reminded me of those blonde haired heels you'll see in 70s and 80s Japanese wrestling where they'd cheat their way to a victory. And I loved that. But Taichi had a real credibility to his offence as well because of the work on the neck and Okada’s selling. His near falls were awesome and in front of his home town, they worked like a treat. Okada having to pull out his big time offence like the spinning tombstone was a real shock but fit the match greatly as nothing else seemed to be effective. He kept plugging away and eventually wore Taichi down and got the win. I think Taichi’s long stretch on offence slightly went but the match was so engaging from the start. Maybe the best Taichi has ever looked. He didn't look out of place he had a great performance. Sometimes Taichi can struggle to figure out what he wants to be and when he should be a certain way but he got his schtick down perfectly - him waiting an extra while longer to take off his pants is a great representation of that, I felt. Okada was real limited on the offence, mostly on the back foot, but his selling and timing made up for that. It just worked for me. ***3/4
NJPW The New Beginning In Osaka 2020 09/02/2020
Ryusuke Taguchi, Toa Henare, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima), Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata
Solid opener. Loved the warm reception Osaka gave him. Even Makabe took a bump. **3/4
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match: Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH) (c) vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
We've certainly seen this match-up before, haven't we? But honestly, they keep it so interesting for me. Suzuki-gun going for SHO’s knee straight away and going to town on it made for a nice story. SHO really sold it well in large portions of the match which in turn made the work on the leg better. YOH and Desperado had their own thing going on which was good. Mainly in the lesser roles, to make way for Kanemaru vs SHO, but they made great use of their moments. The slap fight they had was good. They showed great chemistry any time they even looked at each other. YOH had a nice hot tag as well. Great for this spot on the card. Paced themselves really well and switched it up from their other matches. ***1/2
FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson), Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi vs. BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi)
This was a nice mutli man match. They set up some nice feuds. ***
CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay) vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.)
Ospreay and ZSJ was the focus mainly with the two having the most levity in their sequences. Okada had a brief FIP spot that was good. ***
SANADA vs. Jay White
An obvious match that could've easily have been bad but this was pretty good, honestly. There was a little too much dead air at first between the two but they began building the momentum up well until they had a really good, simplistic closing stretch. The Gedo interference was kept to the start of the match and added to the match at times, like his attempts to stop SANADA do his flip into the ring. ***1/4
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. Ryu Lee
If the Ospreay match played on the neck injuries of Hiromu, then this was going to do that tenfold. Somehow there is even more added stakes to this old match with their last match causing the neck break. This had a ton of teases for the phoenix-plex which caused everyone to hold their breath every time Ryu Lee went for it. This was Ryu Lee doing insane moves to Hiromu's neck and body and it was incredible to watch. The chop battle was so awesome and it left some painful bruises on both guy's chest. The fact that it was only one side of the chest just makes me cringe thinking about it. Lee’s tope to the outside and onto the announce table was again incredible. Ryu Lee was unmistakably the best guy in the match, offensively. Hiromu had some neat counters like his belly to belly on the apron and his destroyers. He mostly got wrecked. The match suffered from a bit of an average closing stretch which in turn was give minutes too late in the match to be effective. ****
IWGP United States Heavyweight Title Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Minoru Suzuki
It was one of those matches where it was good in spite of themselves playing into their not so good attributes. The walk and brawl at the start was your standard stuff and I really didn't care for Suzuki's facial expressions, nor Moxley's at the end. It was really hammy. The middle portion with Suzuki attacking the arm of Moxley and pounding him with elbows was good. Moxley sold the arm as well and held his own. ***1/2
IWGP Heavyweight Title / IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. KENTA
This was good in parts. The stalling battle between Naito and KENTA was quite enjoyable. And the bloody ending was good from a visual and exciting standpoint. The rest was meandering and dull though. KENTA tried but when Naito turns into a human doll, it's hard to be interesting. **3/4
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