NJPW New Beginning in USA 2019: Day 2

CLARK CONNORS vs. KARL FREDERICKS - 4/10

COLT CABANA & JOHN SKYLER vs. SHANE TAYLOR & LANCE ARCHER - 4.75/10

Cabana rolls Taylor up for the win but the heels beat the babyfaces up after the match. I wouldn't hate seeing Taylor brought in as a part-time member of Suzuki-Gun.

TRACER X vs. THE GREAT O-KHARN - 5.75/10

Why is Lord Gideon Grey not out here with The Great O-Kharn? This was a very good showing for Tracer X. I'm shocked no one (WWE, TNA, ROH, WWN) has picked him up yet.

JEFF COBB & JONATHAN GRESHAM vs. VILLAIN ENTERPRISES (Marty Scurll & Brody King) - 7/10

Villain Enterprises have learned to work rather well together in such a short period of time.

DAVEY BOY SMITH JR. vs. ALEX COUGHLIN - 6/10

Another match where the wrestlers seemed to go out of their way to do stuff that was a bit different.

LIFEBLOOD (David Finlay Jr. & Tracy Williams) vs. CHAOS (Rocky Romero & Chuck Taylor) - 8.25/10

An awesome tag team wrestling match.

IWGP UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH:
Juice Robinson(c) vs. Trent Beretta - 7.25/10

I'm not sure what the reason was, but I just couldn't get into this match. Maybe it was knowing that Trent was basically a lame duck challenger, maybe it was the referee not knowing the count-out rules or Juice making noises like a tortured cat every time he did something, or maybe it was their reliance on Piledriver spots after the previous match kind of killed them by having so many get kicked out of. Whatever it was, this match didn't work for me. The drama felt cheap and many of the double-down spots felt extremely forced. This felt like two guys who watched someone else have an MOTYC, then took that match and adapted it to their own spots but none of the emotion translated. The disjointed nature of the last few minutes didn't help matters either.

Your mileage may vary. This was still a "great" match. It wasn't boring and you've got two good workers in there and it went almost twenty-eight minutes. It's definitely one you should check out for yourself. But it certainly wasn't at (or even close to) the level I would like a twenty-eight minute match to be at.

Final Thoughts
Another very good show from New Japan, although the main event was certainly a disappointment. This has been a very interesting and fun tour so far, and the main event of the next show is the one I have been looking forward to the most, so hopefully that delivers.