NJPW Road to the New Beginning live results: Number one contender’s tag match
New Japan Pro Wrestling presents two back-to-back shows at Korakuen Hall on Monday and Tuesday this week.
Monday’s show will be headlined by a number one contenders match for the IWGP World Tag Team titles, currently held by Yuto-Ice & OSKAR, the Knockouts Brothers. Tomohiro Ishii & Taichi will face Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura, with the winners earning a shot at the titles at The New Beginning in Osaka on February 11.
The NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team titles will also be on the line Monday in Korakuen Hall, as Boltin Oleg, Hirooki Goto, and YOSHI-HASHI challenge TMDK’s Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa, and Zack Sabre Jr.
Also scheduled for Monday are Robbie Eagles vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Kosei Fujita vs. SHO, and two first-round matches in the Young Lions Cup.
In multi-person tag matches, Aaron Wolf, El Desperado, Toru Yano, and YOH will team up to take on House of Torture, while the new Unbound Co. faction will face The United Empire.
Our live coverage begins at 4:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
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Main Card
Masatora Yasuda defeated Tatsuya Matsumoto
These Young Lions wrestled to a standstill. Yasuda gained momentum for most of the match by targeting his opponent’s legs. Matsumoto fired back with a shotgun dropkick. Yasuda got the better of a chop exchange. Matsumoto weaponized the earlier damage incurred to Yasuda’s legs to quell most comeback attempts. However, Yasuda surprised the crowd with a standing Moonsault. He finished off Matsumoto with a Boston Crab.
Post-match: Yasuda and Shoma Kato butted heads as the ring announcer declared the former would battle the latter on the January 20 Road to the New Beginning show.
(Yasuda is definitely one of my picks to become a Young Lion Cup finalist this year. He and Katsuya Murashima.)
Zane Jay versus Daiki Nagai ended via disqualification
Jay kept Nagai grounded with his legs, most notably with a Lou Thesz Press. A spirited Nagai retaliated with forearms and a Flying Crossbody. Nagai would control an extended portion of the match until Jay pulled out an elevated dropkick. Nagai shocked Jay with a Spinebuster + Boston Crab combo. United Empire’s Callum Newman distracted Nagai and Referee Red Shoes Unno before incapacitating both. He lent Jay a steel chair, which he struck against Nagai and rained down punches, ending the match.
Post-match: Newman collected him so they could flee from a rampaging Unbound Company.
(That was certainly a development. I’m guessing Zane Jay is with United Empire now. If so, good for him; he’s moving up pretty quickly.)
Aaron Wolf, El Desperado, Master Wato, Toru Yano & YOH defeated House Of Torture (Dick Togo, DOUKI, EVIL, Ren Narita & Yujiro Takahashi)
DOUKI stole the upper hand after a kick assist from Togo with a kick of his own. YOH and Yano bickered about who could follow up before both halted EVIL and Takahashi’s advances. DOUKI took Desperado to the abyss of the crowd outside as EVIL and Togo tormented YOH back in the ring. YOH swung a comeback with a dropkick to EVIL and Takahashi.
Wolf tagged in, levelling the House of Torture to a pile of rubble with elbow strikes flying everywhere. Togo tripped Wolf up to end his momentum. Narita focused his efforts on Wolf’s knee, leading to a desperate tag-in for Wato. Togo got in the face of his argumentative referee, nearly succumbing to Wato’s pin attempts. The pair traded pin attempts, the last of which Wato countered with a Vendeval to earn his team the victory.
(NJPW’s method of saving up Wolf’s follow-up to Wrestle Kingdom 20 puzzled me at first, but I’m now seeing the vision. Once he lets loose at New Beginning, his upside will become all the more apparent.)
United Empire (Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan, Jake Lee & Jakob Austin Young) vs. Unbound Co. (Gedo, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi, Taiji Ishimori & Yota Tsuji)
Corey Michaels covers the play-by-play action of events hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Referenced by content creators and Wikipedia articles, he adds his prosaic voice with authority to the F4W/WON audience.
A content writer and wrestling fan, Corey has woven the stories of our great sport into literature. He cuts to the emotional core of characters, rivalries, and angles.