New Japan began the Road to THE NEW BEGINNING Tour today, the traditional opening of the promotion’s new year as the first series after the annual 1/4 Tokyo Dome blowout event. This begins the unofficial road to next year’s signature event.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on New Japan World in Japanese and English.
The paid attendance was not announced.
Before the event, a special donation of 3 million yen (nearly $24,000 US) was made on behalf of the promotion and its “STRONG SPIRITS” mobile game to charities that are supporting legendary wrestler Shinjiro Otani as he continues to deal with serious medical issues.
Match 1: Great-O-Khan beat Ryohei Oiwa by submission.
Match 2: Gedo & Taiji Ishimori pinned Jado & Master Wato. Gedo pinned Jado.
Match 3: Francesco Akira & Aaron Henare beat TAKA Michinoku & DOUKI. Henare beat TAKA with Ultima.
Match 4: Oskar Leube, YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto beat Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. Ishii pinned Fujita.
Match 5: El Phantasmo & KENTA beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Phantasmo pinned Tenzan after Sudden Death.
Matxh 6: BUSHI & Hiromu Takagashi beat Yoh & Ryusuke Taguchi. BUSHI pinned Taguchi after MX.
Match 7: TJP & Will Ospreay beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi. Ospreay pinned Kanemaru after Hidden Blade. So apparently whatever forced TJP off Sunday’s event last-minute wasn’t serious.
Main Event: Shota Umino, Toru Yano & Kazuchika Okada beat SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. Umino pinned SANADA after Death Slider. Now although I haven’t seen this yet I do (half-jokingly) wonder if Umino benefitted from biased officiating because New Japan lead/main event referee Red Shoes Unno is Umino’s real-life father.
The next event is tomorrow. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET.
