New Japan "New Beginning" 2/10/13

[Warner2BruceTD]

And so it goes.

Next PPV taking shape.

NJPW "THE NEW BEGINNING", 10.02.2013 (WPW/PPV)
Hiroshima Sun Plaza Hall

1. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA (c) vs. Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov
2. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Prince Devitt (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
3. IWGP Tag Team Title: Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. (c) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
4. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Karl Anderson

hmm, somebody is missing...possibly on his way to Florida? Are the rumors true?

 

Okada vs Minoru Suzuki is rumored for this but not official yet

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

I'm sure the Heavyweight Title match will be your usual Tanahashi main event championship match, but I'm really interested in seeing how Anderson does there. Big match for him.

Also, good to see the Junior Tag Title match here.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Fantastica Mania 2013


NJPW/CMLL, 1/18/13 (Samurai! TV)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall

1. Tama Tonga & Titan vs. Euphoria & OKUMURA
2. Ryusuke Taguchi, BUSHI & Diamante vs. Yujiro Takahashi, Tomohiro Ishii & Rey Escorpion
3. Rush vs. YOSHI-HASHI
4. La Mascara, Mascara Dorada & Maximo vs. Volador Jr., TAKA Michinoku & Taichi
5. Special 6 Man Tag Match: Mistico, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Mephisto, Jado & Gedo
6. Special Singles Match: Prince Devitt vs. Dragon Rojo Jr.
7. Special Tag Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi & La Sombra vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Misterioso Jr.



NJPW/CMLL, 1/19/13 (Samurai! TV)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall

1. Tama Tonga & Maximo vs. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi
2. Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & Titan vs. Jado, Gedo & Misterioso Jr.
3. Mascara Dorada & Diamante vs. Mephisto & OKUMURA
4. Prince Devitt, Ryusuke Taguchi & BUSHI vs. Dragon Rojo Jr., Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI
5. Special Singles Match: Mistico vs. Euforia
6. Special 6 Man Tag Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi, La Mascara & Rush vs. Kazuchika Okada, Volador Jr. & Rey Escorpion
7. IWGP Intercontinental Title: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. La Sombra



NJPW/CMLL, 1/20/13 (Samurai! TV)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall

1. Special Singles Match: Maximo vs. Taichi
2. 6 vs. 6 Torneo Cibernetico: Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Mascara Dorada, Diamante, Titan & BUSHI vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Jado, Gedo, Misterioso Jr., OKUMURA & YOSHI-HASHI
3. Special Singles Match: Rush vs. Rey Escorpion
4. NWA World Historic Welterweight Title: Dragon Rojo Jr. (c) vs. La Sombra
5. Mexican National Light Heavyweight Title: La Mascara (c) vs. Volador Jr.
6. Special 6 Man Tag Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Prince Devitt & Mistico vs. Kazuchika Okada, Mephisto & Euforia
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anything float your boat? It's all blending together. But it should be fun.

Nakamura vs La Sombra could be awesome.

OMG MISTICO IS BACK (it's Dragon Lee, and he's not that good, and he's also hurt)

 

[dave]

Is Davey Boy Smith Jr., Harry?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

yes

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Nakamura v. La Sombra is something I'd go out of my way to see.

 

[BigBiss]

Nakamura v. La Sombra is something I'd go out of my way to see.

for sure thats the gem of these shows

i tried to book Rey Escorpion many moons ago, good to see him on these cards

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

As if there isn't enough going on that particular weekend, the New Japan PPV after this one is the early morning of WrestleMania. There is a DGUSA show that day at 1pm, too.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

BUSHI, who was on loan from All Japan, isn't going back. He's now a full time member of the New Japan roster.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Watch these two hoss's beat the fuck out of each other for 10 minutes. I'd love to see Sheamus & Cesaro have matches like this.

Tanaka vs Iishi for 2/3, one week before the PPV.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Takaaki Kidani today announced his resignation as Chairman of the Board of New Japan. Rumours had been circulating for a while about his future after his decision to bring in Laughter7 turned out to be an unpopular one within the company. Kidani said he would continue to support New Japan from his post at Bushiroad but will no longer play a direct role in things. Kidani said he believes any hint of New Japan’s “Dark Age” came to an end on January 4th when 29,000 fans paid for a ticket, the largest in many years, and is excited by the future progress of the company.

President Sugabayashi held a presentation with Nakamura in attendance to discuss to global strategy of New Japan. New Japan wants to become better known around the world and the recent iPPVs are just part of the plan. Nakamura said he plans to defend his increasingly valuable IWGP Intercontinental Title around the world if possible to give it a true international feel and continue to differentiate it from the IWGP Heavyweight Title. Shinsuke talked of going to strange places such as the Amazon of Brazil or even North Korea to defend the title!

An English language version of New Japan’s official site will launch in April, giving the same information to English speaking people as Japanese. Spanish and Chinese versions of the site are also under development. Since 2001, I have run Strong Style Spirit and as far as I have seen it has been the only site in English solely focused on New Japan. New Japan did launch a Facebook in English but is now taking the next step of developing a full website. It’s quite possible the website may make this site obsolete, in which case perhaps my site will have outserved it’s purpose of providing information of the world’s best wrestling organization to people in English. If that is the case, for the first time I may have to consider it’s future but for now nothing will change and I fully support New Japan’s decision to launch a site that can reach more people than Strong Style Spirit.

Finally, New Japan announced some key dates for the next year including “WRESTLE KINGDOM VIII” back at the Tokyo Dome next January.

- 4/7 “INVASION ATTACK” @ Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
- 5/3 “WRESTLING DONTAKU 2013″ @ Fukuoka International Center
- 8/10 “G1 CLIMAX 23″ @ Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
- 8/11 “G1 CLIMAX 23″ @ Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
- 1/4/14 “WRESTLE KINGDOM VIII” @ Tokyo Dome

Launching english, spanish, and chinese versions of the website is big news. These m'fers are serious about expanding.

LOL @ Nakamura defending in the "Amazon of Brazil". Against who, Blanca?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Three new matches announced a few minutes ago. Apparently Sakuraba & Shibata are NOT gone.

Okada vs Sukuzi as expected.

Also, Devitt pinned Tanahashi in a tag match yesterday with the Bloody Sunday. Looks like Devitt will challenge, maybe WrestleMania weekend. Holy shit.




NJPW "THE NEW BEGINNING", 10.02.2013 (WPW/PPV)
Hiroshima Sun Plaza Hall

1. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA (c) vs. Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov
2. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Prince Devitt (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
3. IWGP Tag Team Title: Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. (c) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
4. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Karl Anderson
5. Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki
6. Wataru Inoue & Hirooki Goto vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Katsuyori Shibata
7. Yujiro Takahashi vs Togi Makabe

 

[BigBiss]

6. Wataru Inoue & Hirooki Goto vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Katsuyori Shibata ... i really like this match

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

That looks like a damn good PPV.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Add in Shinsuke Nakamura vs Kengo Mashimo of K-Dojo for the Intercontinental Title

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

(1) Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Tama Tonga, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Jado
(2) IWGP Junior Tag Championship Match: [34th Champions] "TIME SLITTERS" KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley vs. [Challengers] "FOREVER HOOLIGANS" Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov~ 1st Defense.
(3) IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: [66th Champion] Prince Devitt vs. [Challenger] Ryusuke Taguchi~ 2nd Defense.
(4) IWGP Tag Championship Match: [61st Champions] "KILLER ELITE SQUAD" Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith, Jr. vs. [Challengers] "TenCozy" Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima~ 2nd Defense.
(5) Special Single Match: Togi Makabe vs. Yujiro Takahashi
(6) Special Tag Match: Hirooki Goto & Wataru Inoue vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Katsuyori Shibata [Laughter7]
(7) Special Single Match: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kengo Mashimo [K-DOJO]
(8) Special Single Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki
(9) IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: [58th Champion] Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. [Challenger] "The Machine Gun" Karl Anderson
~ 7th Defense.

 

[EmpireWF]

Okada and Suzuki?

What's the story there since they're both heels.


And apparently, Tensai told Meltzer the Anderson/Tanahashi match will be 5*.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Okada and Suzuki?

What's the story there since they're both heels.


And apparently, Tensai told Meltzer the Anderson/Tanahashi match will be 5*.

Okada (CHAOS) & Suzuki (Suzuki Gun) are in opposite heel factions, so even though they are both heels, they are not allies.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Here is the current roster breakdown, with factions and approximate ranks. I added some notes for certain guys:

NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING
- Hiroshi Tanahashi (IWGP Heavyweight Champion)
- Hirooki Goto
- Togi Makabe
- Tetsuya Naito
- Hiroyoshi Tenzan
- Satoshi Kojima
- Manabu Nakanishi
- “The Machine Gun” Karl Anderson
- MVP
- Captain New Japan
- Super Strong Machine
- Tama Tonga
- Kyosuke Mikami (young lion)
- Takaaki Watanabe (young lion)
- Sho Tanaka (young lion)
- Yohei Komatsu (young lion)

BLUE JUSTICE
- Yuji Nagata
- Wataru Inoue
- King Fale (currently on excursion, based in Sacramento with some low level indie)

NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING JR. HEAVYWEIGHTS
- Prince Devitt (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion)
- Ryusuke Taguchi
- Tiger Mask
- Jushin Thunder Liger
- Koji Kanemoto (pretty much an All Japan wrestler now, hasn't worked New Japan since 2011, but technically is still New Japan)
- KUSHIDA (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champion)
- Alex Shelley (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champion)
- BUSHI (was on loan from All Japan, but now is considered full time NJPW and won't be returning to AJPW)
- Hiromu Takahashi (young lion)

CHAOS
- Shinsuke Nakamura (IWGP Intercontinental Champion)
- Kazuchika Okada
- Toru Yano
- Takashi Iizuka
- Masato Tanaka (ZERO1)
- Yujiro Takahashi
- YOSHI-HASHI
- Tomohiro Ishii
- Low Ki
- Rocky Romero
- Alex Koslov
- Jado
- Gedo

SUZUKI GUN
- Minoru Suzuki (technically an outsider, billed from Pancrase, but more as a gimmick as his MMA days are looong over)
- Yoshihiro Takayama (freelancer, not a full time roster member)
- Lance Archer (IWGP Tag Team Champion)
- Davey Boy Smith Jr. (IWGP Tag Team Champion)
- TAKA Michinoku (K-DOJO)
- Taichi

LAUGHTER7
- Kazushi Sakuraba
- Katsuyori Shibata

NEW JAPAN FACTORY (MMA)
- Katsuhiko Nagata