NJPW New Beginnings 2017 Cards Released

[cero2k]

The New Beginning in Sapporo
February 5, 2017 on NJPWWorld.com (English & Japanese Commentary)

KUSHIDA & Hirai Kawato vs. Suzukigun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado)

Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Yoshitatsu, David Finlay & Henare

Katsuyori Shibata, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. CHAOS (Will Ospreay, Gedo & Jado)

YOSHI-HASHI vs. Takashi Iizuka

Michael Elgin, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi & Dragon Lee vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, EVIL, BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi)

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match
Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Beretta) (c) vs. Suzukigun (TAKA Michinoku & Taichi)

NEVER Openweight Championship Match
Hirooki Goto (c) vs. Juice Robinson

IWGP Tag Team Championship 3-Way Match
CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano) (c) vs. GBH (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) vs. Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.)

IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match
Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Minoru Suzuki

The New Beginning in Osaka 2017
February 11, 2017 on NJPWWorld.com (English & Japanese Commentary)

Yoshitatsu & Hirai Kawato vs. David Finlay & Henare

Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & KUSHIDA vs. Suzukigun (Takashi Iizuka, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado)

Juice Robinson, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI, Gedo & Jado)

CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero & Beretta) vs. Suzukigun (Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku & Taichi)

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI)

Singles Match (RPW Heavyweight Championship Match if Shibata is still champion at this point)
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Will Ospreay

IWGP Tag Team Championship 3-Way Match
CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano) vs. GBH (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) vs. Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.)

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. Dragon Lee

IWGP Intercontinental Championship Match
Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Michael Elgin

[Big Red Machine]

The New Beginning in Sapporo

YOSHI-HASHI vs. Takashi Iizuka

At the last show YOSHI-HASHI beat the ROH World Champion. Now he is AT BEST going to win a competitive match over Suzuki-Gun's 50 year-old jobber.

IWGP Tag Team Championship 3-Way Match
CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano) (c) vs. GBH (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) vs. Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.)

Why are GBH even in this match?

The New Beginning in Osaka 2017
February 11, 2017 on NJPWWorld.com (English & Japanese Commentary)

Singles Match (RPW Heavyweight Championship Match if Shibata is still champion at this point)
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Will Ospreay

Now this makes me think that Riddle won't beat Shibata. If this turns out to be just another "New Japan partner books angles to have title change on New Japan show like ROH did with the TV title last year and the world title this year I'm going to lose some faith in RPW.

IWGP Tag Team Championship 3-Way Match
CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano) vs. GBH (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) vs. Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.)

Why is this happening twice?

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. Dragon Lee

So much for Dave's claim that they're keeping these two apart, LOL. Did he even watch the match?

[cero2k]

I'm expecting all tag titles to switch around a lot these shows, also worth noting that there is no Bullet Club at all.

[Big Red Machine]

I'm expecting all tag titles to switch around a lot these shows,

Which is a terrible idea.

also worth noting that there is no Bullet Club at all.

I didn't even notice this until you pointed it out. It makes sense to keep them off the shows in order to let Suzuki-Gun shine as the top heels. I don't think LIJ will win much for that reason, too. I definitely see Kamaitachi losing his belt to Dragon Lee just so Dragon Lee can drop it to Kanemaru so that KUSHIDA can eventually win it back. Maybe Naito retains, but I'm think that's all the wins LIJ get.
With Bullet Club they could also kind of tie it into the Omega thing, but I don't think that's their goal.
Notably, ROH is running the weekend right before these shows, so BC not being on these shows means they don't have to be on the Road To... shows so that they could work ROH that weekend. That being said, ROH hasn't actually announced anyone for that weekend (which is a problem in ROH that they really need to work on because we're only a month away), and normally if they've got Bullet Club guys from Japan coming in they try to make a big deal out of it. Then again, the non-Bucks/Omega/Cole BC guys haven't been particularly received well by the ROH fan-base so I would hope ROH wouldn't waste a chunk of money bringing guys like the The Guerrillas of Destiny and Yujiro and Fale in. Then again, that didn't stop ROH from repeatedly booking Cliff Compton and Kevin Sullivan and Bull Dempsey, so...

[cero2k]

Cole, Bucks, Cody, and Page i think definitely needed to be off right now from the Road shows to build up to the Vegas show. The rest of the guys it may be NJPW/CMLL/ROH/RevPro working together to book them, I wouldn't be surprised if GoD do some dates in CMLL (especially since they're sending everyone to Fantasticamania), Omega may really just take time off. Problem with this angle is that no one can come back until Omega comes back, which makes me think that the YOSHIHASHI v Cole match may actually happen at the Vegas weekend. When is the tournament of Excellence title shot happening?

As to title changes, i totally feel that Okada is losing the title, and once he regains it, Omega returns. I don't see LIJ losing titles, hell, i think they're getting the 6-man back. Everything else I do see Suzukigun winning

[Big Red Machine]

Cole, Bucks, Cody, and Page i think definitely needed to be off right now from the Road shows to build up to the Vegas show. The rest of the guys it may be NJPW/CMLL/ROH/RevPro working together to book them, I wouldn't be surprised if GoD do some dates in CMLL (especially since they're sending everyone to Fantasticamania), Omega may really just take time off. Problem with this angle is that no one can come back until Omega comes back, which makes me think that the YOSHIHASHI v Cole match may actually happen at the Vegas weekend. When is the tournament of Excellence title shot happening?

As to title changes, i totally feel that Okada is losing the title, and once he regains it, Omega returns. I don't see LIJ losing titles, hell, i think they're getting the 6-man back. Everything else I do see Suzukigun winning

Tournament of excellent shot is happening at the PPV.
As for Omega, I think it will be WAY too long before Okada gets the belt back from Suzuki. Like... June at the least, at which point Omega has been gone for five months, only to come back in a G1 that he won't win. They need to find something to do with Omega to keep him strong. The only thing I can think of would be a feud with Tanahashi, but he would need to get the big win at the end, and I doubt they'll have Tanahashi lose two feuds in a row.

[cero2k]

Tournament of excellent shot is happening at the PPV.
As for Omega, I think it will be WAY too long before Okada gets the belt back from Suzuki. Like... June at the least, at which point Omega has been gone for five months, only to come back in a G1 that he won't win. They need to find something to do with Omega to keep him strong. The only thing I can think of would be a feud with Tanahashi, but he would need to get the big win at the end, and I doubt they'll have Tanahashi lose two feuds in a row.

well, he needs to earn another title shot, that's why he would return for the New Japan Cup, not exactly straight to challenge him. Another idea could be that after that match, Omega could potentially come back as a babyface, hard to see the BC turn face, but against Suzukigun, it may just work

[Big Red Machine]

Tournament of excellent shot is happening at the PPV.
As for Omega, I think it will be WAY too long before Okada gets the belt back from Suzuki. Like... June at the least, at which point Omega has been gone for five months, only to come back in a G1 that he won't win. They need to find something to do with Omega to keep him strong. The only thing I can think of would be a feud with Tanahashi, but he would need to get the big win at the end, and I doubt they'll have Tanahashi lose two feuds in a row.

well, he needs to earn another title shot, that's why he would return for the New Japan Cup, not exactly straight to challenge him. Another idea could be that after that match, Omega could potentially come back as a babyface, hard to see the BC turn face, but against Suzukigun, it may just work

That's the other problem. Suzuki-Gun and LIJ are both much more over as heels right now. Omega could conceivably go face, but if he did, he'd be #3 at best (behind Okada and Tanahashi, and maybe even behind Shibata or Elgin), and if Omega went face, it'd be hard to find yet another new leader for Bullet Club (assuming Cole is on his way to WWE... and even if he isn't, that's probably too many prominent Gaijins between Omega, Elgin, Ospreay, the Bucks, Ricochet, K.E.S. and Fale). Either way I think it might be best for Bullet Club to slowly disband. Page and Loa are both bad and Tonga has always been underutilized, but never comes across like he has star potential, either. They seemed to have lost all faith in Yujro as well. It might be best to keep Omega, the Bucks, and Fale together under a different name, find Yujiro and Tonga some tag partners outside of Bullet Club to shake up the tag division, stop using Page, Loa, Owens, and Cole, and let the stable die a merciful death before it becomes a very distant third banana.