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NJPW IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match

​NJPW IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion The Ticking Time Bomb Hiromu Takahashi

Vs

Ring of Honor Television Champion Ryu Lee (fka Dragon Lee)

NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka 2020

NJPW THE NEW BEGINNING in Osaka 2020 Review (Feb 9th, Osaka-Jo Hall)

Nakanishi Final in Osaka-Jo Hall: Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare  **1/2

IWGP Jr. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: SHO & YOH (c) vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru  ***1/2

Kota Ibushi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Guerrillas Of Destiny, Yujiro & Chase Owens  **1/2

Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs. Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.  ***1/4

SANADA vs. Jay White  ***1/4

IWGP Jr. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. Ryu Lee  ****3/4

IWGP U.S. CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Minoru Suzuki  ****1/2

IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT AND IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL DOUBLE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. KENTA  ****

Photos.

This was a show that got off to a bit of a slow start, but ended incredibly well. It opened with Manabu Nakanishi’s final ever match in Osaka, as his team was victorious when Kojima Lariated his way to victory over Honma at 7:09. The match was nothing really, but ended in Nakanishi bowing to the fans as he exited, getting a good ovation in a nice moment. The Jr. Tag straps were on the line next as Roppongi 3K defended against Desperado and Kanemaru. This was very good, but was missing something I felt. The Suzuki-gunners worked over SHO’s knee they injured at the Korakuen shows mid-week all match, but the champions overcame the odds. After SHO countered a Kanemaru whiskey mist attempt with a big German Suplex, he hit a cross-armed piledriver for a near fall, then the champions hit Strong X for the win at the 16:22 mark. Taguchi came out in the post match and asked Rocky Romero to join him in a challenge for the belts next. So it looks like 3K are getting the Coaches. Tanahashi, sporting one of his more preposterous “do’s” in quite some time, pinned one half of the IWGP Tag Champions when he locked Tanga Loa in a small package to end an average 8-man outing at 10:50, which was more about setting up future programmes. Tana and Ibushi challenged G.O.D. for the next title shot, but former champions Fin-Juice, who only lost the titles last week, appeared upset by this. It looks like it may be a 3-way.

New Japan announced a return to Madison Square Garden in August, as well as the firs two nights of G1 being held in Osaka in September, and a return to prime time Japanese TV in the mini interval. Well thats all newsworthy. Okada, teaming with Ospreay, once again pinned Taichi, teaming with ZSJ, with a Rainmaker to end a good 12 minute tag match. This was a brief sprint, though entertaining as it was, it was pretty forgettable stuff and really just a reason to get all four on the card I reckon. Next up, Jay White took on SANADA. I’m not going to lie, watching live, I fell asleep during this match, and had to go back and rewatch it before reviewing, and I can say that, whilst good, no doubt, it wasn’t anything too interesting. It went on an incredibly long time (22 minutes) and just didn’t feel like they got out of first gear. After Cold Skull kicked the ropes into an interfering Gedo’s crotch, he locked on Skull End, but made the age old mistake of letting go to try the Moonsault. Jay obviously avoided it, but gets caught in another Skull End. This time Jay makes the ropes, but SANADA gets a near fall with the Japanese Leg Clutch. White hits the Sleeper Suplex, a version of the Regal Plex, and finally the Blade Runner to take the win. As I say, this was really good by the end, but has to rank as something of a disappointment.

It was time to watch through fingers next as Hiromu defended the Jr. Title against arch nemesis Ryu Lee. Look, there’s no denying the spectacular nature of this match-up, but it was fucking terrifying to watch. Baring in mind, the last time these two fought resulted in one of them breaking their necks, this was never going to be an easy watch. Perhaps they’d have slowed down, or worked a less crazy style? Nope, it was business as usual, and it was frightening. They started with an epic overhand chop battle, until Lee hit a Frankesteiner out of the ring, sending the champion to the floor, then hitting a frankly insane tope suicida as Hiromu was sat on the barricade, wiping out all and sundry. Takahash followed that up with a Sunset Bomb out of the ring, and hits a nasty Death Valley Bomb into the corner, which Lee landed right on his head for. Hiromu locks in the triangle choke he calls “D”, but the Dragon hoists him up and teases the Dragon Driver, the same move which broke Hiromu’s neck, in a terrifying moment. Ryu Lee hits a double stomp off the top to the floor, then they end up on the apron, where Lee charges Hiromu, but ends up getting overhead suplexed off the apron to the floor. Hiromu goes up and hits his batchit crazy Senton off the top to the outside. Back inside, they trade Germans, and Lee attempts Desnucadora, but Takahashi catches him in D. Lee escapes with a buckle bomb, but runs straight into an overhead suplex into the corner pad. A devastating knee strike from Ryu gets a near fall, then he tries the Dragon Driver again (please stop!), but Hiromu escapes, then counters a Last Ride attempt into a Canadian Destroyer. Another huge knee strike by Lee gets a tremendous near fall, but Hiromu hits another Destroyer, followed by Time Bomb for another super close near fall. Takahashi pulls Lee up and hits a huge elbow strike, following it up with a second Time Bomb, this time getting the win and retaining the title at 23:54. As mind-blowing as this match was, I don’t need to see another between them for some time.

Moxley and Suzuki had a tough act to follow, but ended up being more than up for the task by having a very different, but no less crazy outng for the United States Championship. This was a wild brawl. They started the match by brawling through the crowd, and exchanged hard strikes. Suzuki worked over Moxley’s arm, wrapping it in a chair and bashing the chair clad arm with another chair. Suzuki locks on an arm bar, but Mox powers him up and powerbombs Suzuki through a table at ringside. They go to a close up of Suzuki who has a smile on his face as he lays in the wreckage, which was tremendous. They trade more forearms back in the ring, which Suzuki obviously wins, then locks on a tight rear naked choke, releasing it and getting a two count. A stiff sliding kick from Minoru follows, and Moxley returns the favour by hitting the Regal Knee. The Ill-Natured Man puts Moxley down with a big dropkick, then goes for the Gotch, but Moxley counters into Death Rider. Suzuki actually kicks out of Death Rider, then they had a chair duel, resulting in Mox hitting a DDT onto one of the chairs. They trade again with forearms and punches, before Moxley hits another Death Rider, this time finishing the match at 17:16. This was excellent. Zack Sabre Jr. came out in the post match, nailing Mox with the title belt, then chokes him out, signifying that he’s Moxley’s next challenger. That’s an interesting match-up indeed.

And in the main event, Tetsuya Naito defended both the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Titles against KENTA. OK, so this ended up being really great, but there’s no denying that both have seen better days, physically speaking, and expecting them to go 36 minutes seemed like a stretch. Whilst neither are as good as they were in 2014 say, both have tons of charisma, and that’s what got them by here. Also, some very fortuitous hard-way juice helped make it really dramatic down the stretch. The early going was a hard slog in all honesty, but this really picked up when Naito outlasted a Game Over, and hit Gloria for a near fall. After a ref bump, Jay White ran out and nailed a Sleeper Suplex on the champion, which brought out BUSHI, but he’s inturn taken out with Blade Runner. Hiromu comes running down, and takes care of Jay, dragging him to the back, whilst Naito hits his signature flying forearm on KENTA. From here, KENTA blocks a Destino attempt with a Lariat, then tries Go 2 Sleep, by Naito turns it into Destino. Naito charges KENTA, but the dastardly heel sends him into the exposed turnbuckles, which split Naito’s forehead open, and he juices really heavily. A KENTA Busaiku Knee gets a near fall, but another Go 2 Sleep is turned into a reverse rana, then Naito nails another Destino to end this at the 35:50 mark. In the post match, a bloody Naito calls out Hiromu, and challenges him to their long-talked-about match. Hiromu accepts his mentors challenge, so that shuld be pretty damn great.