Feb 10 New Beginnings
Recommended:
– IWGP Jr. Heavyweight: Prince Devitt (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, WON: ***3/4
– Kazushi Sakuraba & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hirooki Goto & Wataru Inoue, WON: ***1/4
– Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazuchika Okada, WON: ****1/4
– IWGP Heavyweight: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Karl Anderson, WON: ****¾
New Beginnings kept up the pace after the Tokyo Dome show’s great matches. Prince Devitt defended the IWGP Jr. Championship against his Apollo 55 teammate Ryusuke Taguchi. The teammates showed respect at the beginning, with a handshake to start and a clean break early on. There was no drama between the two throughout the match. Taguchi kicked out of a foot stomp and a Bloody Sunday DTT, but he was pinned after a second Bloody Sunday at 14:01.
Shibata and Sakaraba teamed together again, this time against Hirooki Goto and Wataru Inoue. Shibata and Goto go back a long way — they were actually high school classmates before reaching New Japan. Shibata and Goto paired off for the beginning of the match. Shibata tagged Sakuraba in and he went to town on Goto with a flurry of open-handed strikes. Goto responded by decking Shibata after he tagged out and was behind the ropes. Inoue was in next and held his own against Sakuraba. Once Shibata was back in, he ignored Inoue for a moment so he could deliver a big boot to Goto on the apron. The match ended unexpectedly at 11:07 when Sakuraba rolled Inoue up after Sakuraba had been rocked by a knee.
Okada faced off against Suzuki in their first-ever one-on-one meeting. Taichi accompanied Suzuki to the ring on crutches due to his recent knee surgery. Suzuki took Okada to the outside and picked a fight with Gedo while Taichi choked Okada with his crutch. Suzuki had Okada in the sleeper, and Taichi was up on the apron while Gedo tried to drag him off. Okada shoved Suzuki into the ropes to knock Taichi off the ring. Okada went for a rainmaker, but Suzuki blocked it by rocking him with slaps. Suzuki got Okada in the Gotch-style piledriver and got the pin at 15:59.
After his great string of singles matches at the end of 2012, Karl Anderson earned himself a main event IWGP Heavyweight title shot against Tanahashi. Anderson came to the ring with Prince Devitt and American wrestler Tama Tonga. There were big dueling chants for the two wrestlers to start the match. Tanahashi worked over Anderson’s right leg and knee early. Anderson hit a gun stun across the ropes, and later hit another with Tanahashi draped over the outside railing. Tanahashi was back in the ring at ‘18’ in the ref’s count. Anderson teased doing a vertical suplex from the apron to the outside, but Tanahashi managed to wriggle out and get his feet down on the apron. Anderson hit him with a jumping kick soon after he landed. Anderson hit an F5 from the top rope at about 15 minutes and the crowd was totally buying the near fall. The match just kept building from here with a non-stop series of big moves, and even bigger crowd reactions. Tanahashi eventually hit Anderson with a gun stun of his own, followed by two high fly flows to get the pin at 25:10. Anderson climbed back into the ring at the end of the match to bow to Tanahashi and shake his hand. With this great match, Anderson proved that he can deliver in the main event.
March 3 Anniversary Show
Recommended:
– IWGP Jr. Tag: Alex Shelley & Kushida (c) vs. Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask
– Hiroshi Tanahashi Vs. Prince Devitt
The 41st New Japan anniversary show at Korakuen hall featured two notable matches. Alex Shelley and Kushida defended their IWGP Jr Tag titles against Jushin Liger and Tiger Mask in a fun, action-packed match. Liger was fired up for the title match and did a lot of his trademark spots. The Time Splitters tried to pin Tiger Mask after delivering an I-84 but Liger broke it up. Shelley and Kushida double-teamed Liger and cleared him out of the ring so Shelley could pin Tiger Mask at 11:22 and retain the titles. The two teams shook hands after the match and Tiger Mask and Liger congratulated them on the mic.
In the main event, Prince Devitt challenged Hiroshi Tanahashi in a battle between the IWPG Jr and IWGP Heavyweight champions. The titles were technically not on the line, but Tanahashi declared before the match that he would vacate the title if he lost. There were big dueling chants from the crowd to start the match. Tanahashi played into the idea of the Devitt’s underdog challenge by playing more of a heel. He mocked Devitt’s mannerisms early in the match to boos from the crowd. Tanahashi did not give Devitt a clean break and struck him with closed fists. Devitt was preparing to do a dive, but Tanahashi sprinted into the ring and levelled him with an elbow to more boos. Tanahashi air guitared to the boos, egging on the crowd. Devitt took a huge dive to the outside and hit his legs on the rails as he took out Tanahashi. Devitt got a chair outside and shoved the ref out of the way so he could whack Tanahashi. The crowd was still strongly behind Devitt. Devitt mocked Tanahashi with the air guitar motion while he held Tanahashi in an abdominal stretch. Despite the great work, the crowd never totally bought Devitt’s near falls and Tanahashi hit a slingblade and two high fly flows for the pin at 17:43. Tanahashi tried to talk to Devitt after the match and Devitt roughly shoved him away. Taguchi was in the ring taking care of Devitt, and Devitt shoved him too when he tried to hold Devitt back. Despite the sour grapes, Devitt left to chants and cheers when he walked to the back. The crowd stuck around to watch Tanahashi, but he had to win them back over and did his post-match routine.
It was awesome to watch Tanahashi step seamlessly into the heel role for this match, and interesting to see how well the crowd played into the story. The crowd loved Devitt, and wanted to see him win as the underdog. But they obviously also love Tanahashi and would be cheering him in any other scenario. It’s not often you get to see someone booed during a match and then playing to a cheering and laughing crowd for 20 minutes afterward.
March 23 New Japan Cup
Recommended:
– Hiroshi Tanahashi, Captain New Japan, KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley vs. Karl Anderson, Tama Tonga, Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi, WON: ***¼
– New Japan Cup Finals: Hirooki Goto vs. Kazuchika Okada, WON: ****
Tama Tonga
Image: ゾーヒョー, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Tama Tonga is the nephew and adopted son of Haku aka Meng, a 1990s WWF/WCW star. Tama was born on the island of Tonga and moved to the U.S. as a child. Tama and his brother started training as wrestlers in their mid-20s. Tama joined New Japan in 2010, while his brother wrestled on NXT as Camacho starting in 2011.
Tama is quick and athletic. One of his most exciting moves is a full speed splash into the corner.
March’s New Japan Cup was a transition show for New Japan, mostly focused on setting up future matches and feuds. In a follow up to the Devitt vs Tanahashi match earlier in the month, Tanahashi, Captain New Japan, Kushida, and Alex Shelley teamed up against Apollo 55, Karl Anderson, and Tama Tonga. Captain New Japan is a comedy act, and a lot of the match was set up around spots where his teammates did not want to tag him in. Prince Devitt and Tanahashi faced off a few times, and the Korakuen Hall crowd again favored Devitt. Devitt ended up pinning Captain New Japan at 13:22 after a foot stomp to the groin and a Bloody Sunday DDT. After the match, the Alex Shelley asked Devitt for a match for the Jr Heavyweight title. Devitt cut a killer promo on everyone, saying he’d beat Shelley, then he and Taguchi would beat the Time Splitters for the Jr Tag titles, then he’d beat Tanahashi (“Hey, dickhead, I’m gonna take your belt”), and then he’d take the Captain’s mask. Devitt and Anderson did the ‘too sweet’ in the ring.
In the main event, Okada and Hirooki Goto met in the finals of the New Japan Cup tournament. Okada beat Toru Yano earlier in the night to reach the finals, and Goto beat Davey Boy Smith Jr. The crowd got behind Goto as the match progressed. Goto looked very strong late in the match when he hit his trademark neckbreaker from the top rope for an exciting nearfall. But an Okada dropkick to the back of the head, followed by a tombstone and a rainmaker, sealed the win for Okada at 23:54. As New Japan Cup winner, Okada earned a rematch for the belt against Tanahashi. Tanahashi came out to the ring carrying the belt after Gedo called him out, and Tanahashi and Okada faced off.