Words & Photos by Brandon Hoffman
Live from the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, New Jersey, The Pop Break Team – myself, Editor-in-Chief Bill Bodkin, senior writer Alex Biese and longtime contributor Kenny Pete had the pleasure of attending NJPW New Beginning USA in-person. Please forgive the slight bias at times caused by the atmosphere of the live New Jersey crowd.
Walker Stewart and Veda Scott are your English commentators for the evening, and the first match of the night contained a silent farewell.
Fred Rosser v. David Finlay
Lots of fighting outside the ring and hits on the ring post/apron to feature the violence early in the show. Finlay played the obvious heel here due to Rosser’s home state reception taking precedence over a big elephant in the room. It seemed everyone waited patiently for some kind of confirmation on Finlay’s contract status with NJPW.
After this run-of-the-mill match ended with an Overkill finisher from Finlay, he took to the mic to address the crowd. He lifted the microphone to his mouth, said absolutely nothing, dropped it, and walked up the ramp to celebrate his victory with the Knock Out Brothers. We can only still assume Finlay is done with NJPW, but at least he looked strong on his way out.
Tomohiro Ishii (c) v. Boltin Oleg – Strong Openweight Championship Match
Big beefy boys slapping meat dominated the mood of this match and created an instant classic. Everyone got especially excited when Ishii and Oleg just chopped each other for a full minute straight. The madness just refused to slow down with each lariat and headbutt topping each other with the stiffness of it all. The sheer unpredictability of what could come next made every move feel important, even if it was as simple as a clothesline.
Oleg won this match with his Kamikaze finisher to become the new Strong Openweight Champion, putting Ishii out to pasture in the Garden State. As per usual with an Ishii performance, he always looks powerful in defeat. This match presented Oleg as a slugger that can hit hard, with Ishii as the perfectly mirrored foil to the Kazakhstan native. If Oleg continues wrestling these styles of matches during his Strong title reign, it will be the greatest midcard spot for him on all future NJPW cards.
Ricochet (c) v. Taiji Ishimori – AEW National Championship Match
This match felt like the comedy piece for the night. There was one simple fact that remained constant no matter how this match went: Ricochet is bald. He’s so bald that any springboarding or diving offense he committed was met with boos afterwards. Admittedly, the heel v. heel dynamic between Baldie and Ishimori became too confusing to convince as a match that worked well. The glitz and glamor on display between both men was undeniable, but were we really supposed to cheer the exposed buckle exploitation of Ishimori just because he’s not bald?
Ricochet retained his National Title with his Spirit Gun to finish this one. There was no scenario where Ishimori would win this match, but it was a fun crowd-baiting match thanks to Ricochet’s heeling. He became Public Enemy No. 1 with how many times he did something dastardly. Aside from The Demand stable (Ricochet, Bishop Kaun, Toa Liona), there weren’t any other wrestlers on this card so unanimously hated. It truly puts those three in such a powerful spot as the heels who could reliably get heat tonight.
El Desperado & KUSHIDA v. Jordan Oliver & Alec Price – Tag Team Match
The wrong team won this match. Sorry to say, but Desperado and KUSHIDA absolutely did not need to defeat the newly signed team to AEW. Oliver and Price were the standout stars here, pulling off no-handed springboards among other wowing maneuvers. Kushy and Despy can still work well individually and their star power in the Junior Division is still special. However, not giving a rub to the future stars in favor of the status quo was quite the mistake to make here tonight.
Desperado won with his Pinche Loco after a big back and forth fight. Price and Oliver popped the crowd more when presented with chances of victory here. In terms of teamwork, they were more inclined to demonstrate their chemistry as opposed to Despy and KUSHIDA’s mutual respect. There were no outright bad things to say about this match’s in-ring quality, the booking overall did not benefit the right people.
El Phantasmo (c) v. Konosuke Takeshita – NJPW World Television Championship Match
ELP and Takeshita cannot have a bad match together even if you paid them to, and tonight was certainly no different. ELP dove outside to Takeshita on the crowd seating, and both men performed their usual signatures. However, the strict TV time limit expired, leaving the Trenton crowd and ELP unsatisfied.
ELP demanded a five minute extension, which Takeshita ultimately obliged to. Say goodbye to that 15 minute time limit, for one night only! That pop when Takeshita marched back into the ring to extend the time limit was the biggest reaction of the night from an in-house perspective by the way. My ears are still ringing.
The last few minutes of this extended match were special, with move after move feeling more important than the last. Eventually, Takeshita won the match and became the new World TV Champion with the Powerdrive Knee/Raging Fire combination.
If the final stretch of this match could be its own segment, then it’s the best segment of the whole show. What an electric atmosphere and sequence. This led to ELP essentially screwing himself out of the title retention just for the roar of the crowd. The great chemistry between Takeshita and ELP also made the match amazing.
Knock Out Brothers (OSKAR & Yuto-Ice) (c) v. Gates of Agony (Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona)
Yuto and Oskar both epitomize the model of “New Japan wrestlers” in the current-day product. Their match structure usually consists of heeling at the expense of their opponents, but this match was an anomaly in their lengthy title reign. Because the Gates of Agony were heels, they worked as the bad guys while the unbeatable cool heel Tag Champions had to play the role of the underdogs.
This match wasn’t as good as KOB’s previous defense against Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura, but it was still solid. All the beef in the ring led to lariats and kicks slapping all the bodies and causing lots of chaos. Much like Ricochet/Ishimori, the ending was never in doubt for the nerdist within me.
The finish saw KOB’s Tombstone/Penalty Kick combo put away Bishop Kaun for the successful defense. Watching this live thrilled the crowd and backed up Yuto-Ice’s promise of “restoring the high,” but the match was nothing earth-shattering.
Syuri (c) v. Athena – IWGP Women’s Championship Match
Unfiltered women’s wrestling is something that should never be taken lightly. Whenever they get the chance to smack and suplex each other, it’s always a fun experience. Booking be damned, Athena is one of the best to do it today. It is unbelievable that she hasn’t won any major championships besides the thousand-plus day Ring of Honor Women’s Title. Her commitment to selling every move like death mixed with Syuri’s rock hard kicks made for a great showdown.
Unfortunately, the promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom is not as well known in New Jersey as New Japan, but hopefully this quickness and swift maneuvering from Syuri can create some new fans. The finish came with the Syu Sekai from the Champion, who retained her title.
After the match, Syuri eyed Athena’s ROH Title, potentially teasing another match between them down the line. Then, Alex Windsor appeared on the titantron to challenge for the Strong Women’s Championship, also held by Syuri, at EVE’s Wrestle Queendom on March 8. Another rematch! Can’t really pass up a match we know will be as physical as ever, right?
Yota Tsuji (c) v. Andrade El Ídolo – IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship Match
We had Oleg/Ishii and ELP/Takeshita earlier, but this was the overall match of the night. Tsuji’s main character energy got challenged by the absolute power and fluidity of Andrade here. Those overhand chops from both guys sounded like guns triggered in the arena. The movesets of both men made for such unique back and forth, and that’s just their arsenals on a normal day. Tsuji with the stomps, Andrade with the Three Amigos, it was all a beautiful mix of moves.
It got very heavy with all the false finishes, with each kickout feeling more surprising than the last. The Gene Blast finisher from Yota Tsuji didn’t put Andrade away, which got a confused pop from the crowd. It’s like we expected that to be the finish but the match trodged onward. The finish did eventually come with Tsuji’s Boston Crab.
A powerful statement happened for the character of Andrade, tapping out after he beat Gabe Kidd, Swerve Strickland, and Kenny Omega all within the span of a month. It made Yota Tsuji look mighty powerful by comparison, but also continued a story of Tsuji using his Young Lion finisher to defeat his enemies.
All the fun tonight got rounded off with Tsuji cutting a promo in English to the crowd, proclaiming NJPW as the best promotion in the world. It’s hard to disagree with him after a great night of pure professional wrestling. All of New Japan’s strengths were highlighted in this show. The strong style, the athleticism, and the spectacle of the sport together created a show New Jersey will never forget.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s New Beginnings USA is now streaming on NJPW World.
