THE NEW BEGINNING in OSAKA, New Japan’s first major event of February, is now in the books. And it was a new beginning indeed as the promotion said farewell to Will Ospreay (now headed full-time to All Elite Wrestling) and witnessed what likely is Ace vs. Rainmaker-The Final Chapter.
Today’s event was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. This event aired live in Japan as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING 2024 LIVE on TV Asahi.
The announced paid attendance was 5327, a legit advance sellout. Had they not blocked off about 1/4 of the seating for the stage & entrance area, it could have been even higher. (Also worth nothing that’s higher than the venue’s normal full capacity, which is 5000 for sumo)
Match 1L Yoh & Toru Yano beat Boltin Oleg & Ryusuke Taguchi. Yoh pinned Taguchi with Kid Clutch.
Match 2: YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan. YOSHI-HASHI pinned Newman after Shoto.
Match 3: Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita, Sho & EVIL beat Tiger Mask, Tomoaki Honma, El Desperado & Shota Umino. Sho pinned TM 4 after Shock Arrow. Afterwards, Sho stole the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship belt from Desoerado and demanded a title match on 2/23. Desperado agreed…but with a potential stip: If Sho loses, he would leave House Of Torture (and thus Bullet Club) and join STRONG STYLE.
Match 4: TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura, Taichi & SANADA beat BUSHI, Yota Tsuji, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. SANADA beat BUSHI with Skull End.
Match 5: The Final Chapter-Kazuchika Okada beat Hiroshi Tanahashi. Afterwards, the two embraced in the ring to end their iconic 12 year rivalry between perhaps the two greatest ever in New Japan, or at least in our generation. Okada will appear at the doubleheader later this month in Hokkaido then he is headed elsewhere to continue his career-the rumor mills strongly suggest he is headed to All Elite Wrestling but that is not definite.
Match 6: Chase Owens & KENTA beat IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions El Phantasmo & Hikuleo to win the titles. Owens & KENTA become the 101st IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. KENTA pinned Hikuleo after Taiji Ishimori interference and a belt shot.
Match 7: Zack Sabre Jr. beat Bryan Danielson (All Elite Wrestling). They went nearly 33 minutes.
Main Event: In a Dog Pound Cage Match with staggered alternating entries every 2 minutes, Drilla Moloney, Gabriel Kidd, Alex Coughlin, Clark Connors & David Finlay beat Francesco Akira, TJP, HENARE, Jeff Cobb & Will Ospreay. Finlay pinned Ospreay after Overkill. 64 minutes of perhaps the most violence ever seen in New Japan. Afterwards, United Empire stayed behind for a final curtain call for Ospreay as this was his last match in New Japan as a full-time member before he heads to AEW full-time. But with the two promotions having a working agreement, the door will undoubtedly be open for The Aerial Assassin to come back now & then. And he promised the fans they would see him again.
The next event is NJPW PRESENTS CMLL FANTASTICAMANIA 2024, the (usually) annual crossover series with the CMLL promotion in Mexico, beginning tomorrow at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET. The series will run every day over the next 8 days except Wednesday.
