New Japan continued the Road To THE NEW BEGINNING Tour today with the second half of a Tokyo doubleheader.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World FOR FREE! (Mobile/tablet users will likely need to download and use the NJPW WORLD app to watch, same for smart TVs) This was an ABEMA simulcast in Japan.
The announced paid attendance was 1015.
There were last-minute changes to the event following yesterday-HENARE & Gabriel Kidd were not medically cleared after their Double KO and Jeff Cobb remained out after a Bullet Club beatdown pre-event. He was off yesterday due to injury but appeared for a pre-event autograph session.
Pre-show Match: Katsuya Murashima vs. Shoma Kato went to a 10 minute time limit draw.
Match 1: Taiji Ishimori, Chase Owens & KENTA beat Jado, El Phantasmo & Hikuleo. KENTA pinned Jado.
Match 2: Boltin Oleg, Yoh, Tomoaki Honma, El Desperado & Shota Umino beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita, Sho & EVIL. Umino pinned Takahashi after Death Rider.
Match 3: Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii, Togi Makabe & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Sabre beat Makabe with an armbar.
Match 4: Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, TJP & Great-O-Khan beat Drilla Moloney, Clark Connors, Alex Coughlin & David Finlay by DQ. Finlay DQ’d. Chair use.
Main Event: In an elimination match series with 10 minute time limits (more like a gauntlet match), Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Yota Tsuji beat SANADA, DOUKI, TAKA Michinoku, Taichi & Yuya Uemura. In the final deciding match, Tsuji beat Uemura. Afterwards, Tsuji requested his 2/24 match against Uemura be changed to a Hair vs. Hair Deathmatch, and then set his sights on Naito and the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship after that. But first Naito has to defend against SANADA and Tsuji presumably would have to win the New Japan Cup…
The next event is tomorrow at Wing Hat Kusakabe in Saitama. There will be no live or on demand broadcasts. In fact, there are no more broadcasts for the tour. The next live broadcast is THE NEW BEGINNING in OSAKA on Sunday at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Tokyo beginning at midnight PT/3 AM ET. The New Japan World broadcast will be available OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY. This will be a TV Asahi live broadcast in Japan.
UPDATE: Cobb, Kidd & HENARE are all off tomorrow now. They were to have been in a 10-man tag match. Great-O-Khan is a replacement for Cobb/HENARE and it’s now an 8-man tag. Also, for 2/24 the Tsuji-Uemura Hair vs. Hair Match is now official. The loser loses his hair.
