NJPW The New Beginning 2013
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NJPW The New Beginning 2013 (2/10/2013)- Hiroshima, Japan
CHAOS (Takashi Iizuka, Toru Yano, Jado, YOSHI-HASHI, and Tomohiro Ishii) vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Tama Tonga, & Tiger Mask IV- 4.25/10
The heels start to rough up an announcer, so the babyfaces come down to make the save. This show was over four hours long, so this created a good reason to pretty much skip the entrances for five different guys, which probably saved some time, and it gave me, an American who doesn’t speak Japanese and thus really doesn’t know the angles, more of a reason to care about the match, so props to them for that.
The match itself was the standard large tag team undercard clusterduck you usually get from New Japan. The good news is that this is usually the low point of any New Japan show, so now that that’s out of the way…
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA(c) vs. Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov)- 6.75/10
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Prince Devitt(c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi- 7.25/10
Great athletic match, although I hate Taguchi’s selling of the flying double stomp. It makes no physical sense that he would dip down then pop back up and take a freakin’ back bump instead of going down on his front!
IWGP TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.(c) vs. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroshi Tenzan- 6.25/10
YUJIRO TAKAHASHI vs. TOGI MAKABE- 5/10
KATSUYORI SHIBATA & KAZUSHI SAKURABA vs. WATARU INOUE & HIROOKI GOTO- 6.25/10
KENGO MASHIMO vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA- 6.25/10
KAZUCHIKO OKADA vs. MINORU SUZUKI- 8/10
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Hiroshi Tanahashi(c) vs. Karl Anderson- 8.5/10
Great story with both men working over body parts, and awesome selling as usual from Tanahashi. He is one of the few Japanese guys who manages to break the language barrier and really make me care.
Another great show from New Japan, although not as amazing as the last few big Pay-Per-Views have been. The undercard was solid, but not particularly interesting at all, so this show is really carried by the top two matches.
CHAOS (Takashi Iizuka, Toru Yano, Jado, YOSHI-HASHI, and Tomohiro Ishii) vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Tama Tonga, & Tiger Mask IV- 4.25/10
The heels start to rough up an announcer, so the babyfaces come down to make the save. This show was over four hours long, so this created a good reason to pretty much skip the entrances for five different guys, which probably saved some time, and it gave me, an American who doesn’t speak Japanese and thus really doesn’t know the angles, more of a reason to care about the match, so props to them for that.
The match itself was the standard large tag team undercard clusterduck you usually get from New Japan. The good news is that this is usually the low point of any New Japan show, so now that that’s out of the way…
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA(c) vs. Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov)- 6.75/10
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Prince Devitt(c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi- 7.25/10
Great athletic match, although I hate Taguchi’s selling of the flying double stomp. It makes no physical sense that he would dip down then pop back up and take a freakin’ back bump instead of going down on his front!
IWGP TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.(c) vs. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroshi Tenzan- 6.25/10
YUJIRO TAKAHASHI vs. TOGI MAKABE- 5/10
KATSUYORI SHIBATA & KAZUSHI SAKURABA vs. WATARU INOUE & HIROOKI GOTO- 6.25/10
KENGO MASHIMO vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA- 6.25/10
KAZUCHIKO OKADA vs. MINORU SUZUKI- 8/10
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Hiroshi Tanahashi(c) vs. Karl Anderson- 8.5/10
Great story with both men working over body parts, and awesome selling as usual from Tanahashi. He is one of the few Japanese guys who manages to break the language barrier and really make me care.
Another great show from New Japan, although not as amazing as the last few big Pay-Per-Views have been. The undercard was solid, but not particularly interesting at all, so this show is really carried by the top two matches.