NJPW New Beginning Tour Thread
 

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced the cards for the New Beginnings tour for this month and it looks like a cracker, especially the final Osaka show. Highlights of the headlines are below, along with links to the full card for each night.

<strong>The New Beginning in Sapporo 2018 (Day 1)</strong>
January 27 (English Commentary Available) @ Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center, Sapporo

Katsuya Kitamura 7-Match Proving Series (Match 2): Katsuya Kitamura vs. Michael Elgin
NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship Match: Bad Luck Fale & Guerrillas of Destiny (c) vs. Togi Makabe, Toa Henare & Ryusuke Taguchi
Jay White & Roppongi 3K vs. The Elite (Omega & Young Bucks)
IWGP Intercontinental Championship Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Minoru Suzuki
<a href="http://www.njpw.co.jp/tornament/117878?showCards=1">View Full Card</a>

<strong>The New Beginning in Sapporo 2018 (Day 2)</strong>
January 28 (English Commentary Available) @ Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center, Sapporo

Katsuya Kitamura 7-Match Proving Series (Match 4): Katsuya Kitamura vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
David Finlay vs. Jay White
Ten Man Elimination Tag: CHAOS (Okada/Goto/YOSHI-HASHI/Ospreay/Gedo) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Naito/EVIL/SANADA/BUSHI/Hiromu)
<a href="http://www.njpw.co.jp/tornament/117887?showCards=1">View Full Card</a>

<strong>Road to The New Beginning 2018</strong>
February 6 @ Korakuen Hall, Tokyo

Katsuya Kitamura 7-Match Proving Series (Match 5): Katsuya Kitamura vs. Satoshi Kojima
IWGP Tag Team Championship: SANADA & EVIL (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto
<a href="http://www.njpw.co.jp/tornament/117888?showCards=1">View Full Card</a>

<strong>The New Beginning in Osaka 2018</strong>
February 10 (English Commentary Available) @ EDION Arena, Osaka

Katsuya Kitamura 7-Match Proving Series (Match 6): Katsuya Kitamura vs. Yuji Nagata
Gedo vs. BUSHI
Tetsuya Naito vs. YOSHI-HASHI
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi
NEVER Openweight Championship: Hirooki Goto (c) vs. EVIL
IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. SANADA
<a href="http://www.njpw.co.jp/tornament/117890?showCards=1">View Full Card</a>

Pretty good stuff. I'm curious to see how things really work out between Okada and Sanada.

I've also got no clue whether or not Tanahashi will drop the belt, because he's apparently advertised for ROH's WrestleMania weekend shows.

My god. take some time off and heal, you crazy ace bastard.

I've been all in on Sanada since he reinvented himself and joined LIJ. Okada match should be great.

Wasn't Tanahashi supposed to get surgery like a fucking year ago?

I think creature is a njpw fan now.

Hopefully this will be the last tour for shitbag Elgin.

GO (heal) ACE

Sounds like CMLL are taking Kawato with them after the tour to begin his excursion.

Yeah, I hope he loses. People expect Kanemura to lose a lot of his trial series matches. That's usually the thing, yeah? I can see Tenzan and Kojima winning theirs, but I kind of think they're strapping a rocket onto this guy. But that might be what this trial series, in general, is. I expect big, big things from Kanemura though.

Sanada is, in my opinion, going to be one of their top guys very, very soon. That sounds daft, but I think it will be bigger than people think and sooner than people think.

You mean Kitamura? Kanemaru is an older guy from Suzuki-Gun.

I'd expect him to beat Elgin pretty emphatically and go over at least one of the New Japan Dads, Tenzan doesn't really work singles matches anymore so he'd be most likely to take a loss. Cozy and Nagata could go either way.

SANADA is great, his original LIJ look was so much cooler though.

https://pm1.narvii.com/6517/7543e6e3...9202b79_hq.jpg

Yeah, I did. I just remembered the "mura" part. Actually never heard of Kanemura, I just pulled out a Japanese surname that began with "K." My bad.

I like Sanadas current tights, but that weird horned mask isn't as cool as the skull and leather jacket.

Are we gonna treat this as the New Japan thread or should we get one of those started formally?

In any event.....

<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd8Dd5QHqta/" data-instgrm-version="8" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:62.5% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GP T6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAA AElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; ██████████relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd8Dd5QHqta/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">🗡</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jaywhitenz/" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Jay White</a> (@jaywhitenz) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2018-01-14T17:31:24+00:00">Jan 14, 2018 at 9:31am PST</time></p></div></blockquote>
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Mr. White, that's not wise.

He's trying.

I give him credit for trying. Just not sure there are many good reasons to get a permanent scarfication.

Jesus.

Also, there already is a general new japan thread

somewhere

I'm sure he's cool with it, or else he wouldn't have done it.

Maybe he's trying to land in the DC Movieverse as Zsasz.

That's about, but there's enough of us now where we can just have threads for major goings on, or for stuff like Jay scarring himself, 100,001 replies or just wherever would work fine.

Not digging the Rumble so much, but between the first two days of this and NXT, it's going to be a great weekend.

Jesus, so much wrestling this weekend. Between all this and DB Fighterz I'm gonna be neck bearding til monday.

https://i.imgur.com/HgBjwyl.jpg
Derp face

Day 1 tomorrow morning
Takeover tomorrow night
Day 2 Sunday morning
Rumble Sunday night

If it was any other WWE PPV I'd probably just not bother but the Rumble's one of the few things I still want to watch live even if it isn't good.

Just going to see how tired I am Saturday since Takeover will finish at 3am and then day 2 of New Beginning will be only a couple of hours later. So I'll only watch one live.

Rumble I'll watch while working on Monday.

Really shouldn't have been drinking last night, but I'm up. I'm up godammit.

No way am I making it to Takeover tonight.

Looks like someone else is a little tranquilo

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NXTChampion?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NXTChampion</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/AndradeCienWWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AndradeCienWWE</a> is feeling confident ahead of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NXTTakeOver?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NXTTakeOver</a>: Philadelphia, but <a href="https://twitter.com/Zelina_VegaWWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Zelina_VegaWWE</a> wants her business associate to be FOCUSED, too! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWENXT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWENXT</a> <a href="https://t.co/6ybvs2xnie">pic.twitter.com/6ybvs2xnie</a></p>&mdash; WWE NXT (@WWENXT) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWENXT/status/956904828881592320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Great hype video, and here comes the Kitamura in his proving series.

Hope he beats Big Cunt Mike

Big Mike feeling it like he just told someone to suck his dick or stop talking

Booo Elgin

Yessss, always love it when Taichi gets his entrance

Lyger, Tiger Mask and Kushida are a helluva team.

That Kushida/Taka segment in this match was fantastic. I want a proper match.

Kushida makes Taka tap. Kevin Kelly calls it as triumphing over eeeeviiiiilll, which made me laugh.

The Tokyo Pimp coming out without the bunny. Fuck this.

Yano and Ishii seem like they should be a great odd couple team.

Damn, Tama Tonga has a submission finisher too now

Marty, Cody and Hangman Page are kind of the elite 2

Oh, Cody, Marty and Page are the handsome devils of the Bullet Club

Cody just started saying that Kenny Omega is the leader of the Bullet Club. God bless the United States of America and god bless Kenny Omega.

Hahaha Naito just spat at Don't missed and hit the lady behind him

Good way to put some story into Naito V Yoshi-Hashi. Since people were asking why have that match, Naito also thinks he's below him and ignores him even attacking him, Yoshi Hashi snaps and beats Naito up and even spits on him.

Very much a one match show, but fuck, what a goddamn match it was.

IC title match winners promo

Forever Mao

I want to see Jericho vs Suzuki

Main event fucking ruled.

Got around to watching today's show and Okada developing more of an arrogant and heelish vibe to his character has been pretty interesting.

Suzuki-Tanahashi IC title match was really amazing.

Day 2 spoilers

What a beautiful weekend of wrestling so far. I'm almost positive on the Rumble right now.

Be still my beating heart :heart:

The closing scene of Day 2 was so tremendous. Not sure if I agree with the outcome of the main event, but that's a whole other issue...

I actually liked the way Jay went over, it was a solid finishing sequence. Really good match too. The final scene was also really nice and a great step forward for Kenny and Kota.

I actually think it's a good idea.

Totally agree on all this.

I didn't catch that Ibushi was crying actual tears when I was watching live.

What a beautiful man.

https://i.imgur.com/MAlx8xr.gif

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DUsqpkWVoAEoTES?format=jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DUsqpkVU...=jpg&name=orig

Seems Tanahashi might finally get the rest time he desperately needs since Observer reported NJPW is currently considering having him out till the G1.

Wow Golden Lovers? That sounds pretty.......

Their finisher was the Golden Shower

https://78.media.tumblr.com/44c4bea7...qhy1r2_400.gif

Kinda love how we get storyline through this

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q08Ik2tiE2k" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Also Ibushi's fashion is on point

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DUvkTwuVoAEwwV5.jpg:large

Fuck yeah, Bullet Club Wolfpac.

Feel like the Tongans are already their own faction. Wonder where they'll fit in with all this.

I'm not fully sure what's going to happen. Hangman and Cody could leave, or Kenny could be kicked out with maybe one or more of the other guys, or GoD and Fale could just take this over.

I love how they're playing this storyline. I wonder how much involvement Gedo and Jado have in it, because they clearly have to be clued in.

I mean I've said for a while that I'd like to see the Tongans and Fale break off and form their own faction. They've always had their own unique vibe.

And it's time for Tama to step up. He proved in the G1 he's got the chops to be a serious singles contender. I would start him off with dethroning Goto somewhere down the line.

I can't remember if it was Kenny or Cody who said it first - but apparently the first sign of tension between the two of them (when Kenny won the US Title I believe) was something they did on their own. And they did it just to give Gedo something to work with if he ever decided it was time to split up the Club or move Kenny onto something else since they could see a major face push in the offing.

Oh, neat. I'm guessing at this point he's laid out what the plans are to them all going forward and they're just filling in the gaps.

Yeah, I didn't watch the post-show stuff but apparently Tama said he can see where things are going and if club leadership fragments again he's not going to bother taking orders from anyone else. So it sure looks like there will be some sort of divide.

During the G1 press conference, Tama went on an impassioned speech about how important Bullet Club is and you could see Kenny behind him almost being like "jesus dude, I'm the leader and not even I care about the group this much"

Which neatly played into Kenny and Tama's match

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q08Ik2tiE2k?start=965" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

That ending :eek:

Elite vs BC. Cody vs Omega.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/hms0Mi9c6x">https://t.co/hms0Mi9c6x</a> Ibushi speaks up about the Golden Lovers reunion. <a href="https://t.co/PewzURgRdB">pic.twitter.com/PewzURgRdB</a></p>&mdash; chris charlton (@reasonjp) <a href="https://twitter.com/reasonjp/status/959336051373367297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 2, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Latest episode of Being the Elite hinted at Cody vs Kenny Omega at Suoercard of Honor. Nick Jackson had a PREMONITION.

Marty Scurll is amazing and I think Cody is auditioning to be a boss in Yakuza 7 with this look.

He's doing some filming for something that requires it according to his twitter. Says he'll change it back once filming wraps but he's starting to like it.

Its not just the hair, but that combined with the big fur jacket and the cigars

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dFyVBQavd7Q" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This is the best stable split ever

lol, that has to be staged. He could make even more if there were 2 or 3 popular groups.

Really digging it to. Tama really should be the next leader of Bullet Club and he's ready. Should also crash the Cody/Kenny Supercard of Honor match and just fuck shit up.

Am I the only one who doesn't care for all this Bullet Club shit? I guess you have to do it to change the groups, but it's not very interesting.

Noid isn't interested in something related to modern wrestling. News at 11.

That's a gross misrepresentation of my point for convenience, but suit yourself. I am extremely interested in where Minoru Suzuki goes, for example. I'm interested in the development of The Velveteen Dream. And I am actually kind of excited about WrestleMania this year. I just don't find Kenny Omega vs. Cody Rhodes that bloody exciting, because one feels like a goof and the other a geek.

I can't imagine why you'd wouldn't be able to take Kenny Omega seriously. I guess you must find him corny.

You do have me now imagining a Suzuki vs Dream match and now though, god damn talk about a personality clash.

What about Tama? I'll give you the Kenny/Cody stuff as its seemed like a given since Cody joined but Tama's development and rise is the most interesting part of this split to me.

Tama's really underrated and he and Fale are the only two true Bullet Club originals left. If the Tongans do fraction off into their own group it'd kinda be a shame if they couldn't take the Bullet Club name with them.

My gut instinct is still that the Bucks and Scurll turn on Kenny at Supercard and they, Cody, and Hangman would formally continue on as The Elite with or without the rest of Bullet Club. But we'll see.

Bullet Club splitting into The Elite and Bullet Club Lite makes a lot of sense. If they split along the current ROH and NJPW lines, its almost an even split in members.

In terms of merch power, BC takes a huge but could potentially offset those losses with The Elite.

It's his facial expressions. He's such a bad actor, haha. It's off-putting and weird. Takes me out, and part of the job is to draw people in, so he doesn't do it for me. He's great at other things, but he's just not the complete package for me.

I haven't seen enough of him to comment. Recommend any good Tama matches?

His match against Kenny Omega in the G1 climax was great.

I'll go check it out at some point in the next few days.

Just check out as much of the G1 that you can. I thought Tama had good matches against everyone but Yano.

https://i.imgur.com/x2JUwZH.png

Woah! Language!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">See, now this is what it's all about... a couple of good pals like <a href="https://twitter.com/WillOspreay?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WillOspreay</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/TIMEBOMB1105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TIMEBOMB1105</a> getting together and sharing some tasty chicken. ��█<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/njnbg?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#njnbg</a><br><br>➡️ <a href="https://t.co/8n90d75Nfk">https://t.co/8n90d75Nfk</a> <a href="https://t.co/SCzm5q6Hgu">pic.twitter.com/SCzm5q6Hgu</a></p>&mdash; TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) <a href="https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/961388872964993024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The perfect response to a blatantly disrespectful question... <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/njnbg?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#njnbg</a> <a href="https://t.co/PJolLAy0w5">pic.twitter.com/PJolLAy0w5</a></p>&mdash; Jude Kilgour (@judekilgour) <a href="https://twitter.com/judekilgour/status/961741599104479243?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
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This is my favourite rivalry of all time. I'm in tears.