NJPW Road to the New Beginning live results: El Desperado vs. DOUKI
NJPW’s Road to the New Beginning continues on Tuesday at Korakuen Hall.
Two title matches headline the card. The Ichiban Sweet Boys (Robbie Eagles and Kosei Fujita) will put the titles on the line against House of Torture’s Yoshinobu Kanemaru and SHO. It will be the first title defense for Fujita and Eagles since winning the belts at New Year’s Dash.
DOUKI will put the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on the line against El Desperado. It will be DOUKI’s first defense since beating Desperado for the title at King of Pro Wrestling last October. For Desperado, he has a chance to win the title for a sixth time, which would tie him for second all-time with Tiger Mask and KUSHIDA.
The Young Lion Cup also continues on Tuesday with two semifinal matches: Shoma Kato vs. Masatora Yasuda and Katsuya Murashima vs. Daiki Nagai.
Our live coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. Japan Standard Time, 4:30 a.m. Eastern, and 1:30 a.m. Pacific.
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Main Card
Shoma Kato defeated Masatora Yasuda
Kato abused Yasuda’s tender neck using his elbows. He followed with a couple of vertical suplexes, stomps to the knee, and a single-leg Boston Crab. Yasuda fought his way out with a dropkick. Kato tasted his own medicine as he too found himself in a Boston Crab. As his prey pivoted and crawled, Yasuda twisted his Crab and sank it deeper. Kato swung a comeback via an arm drag and turned it into an armbar, soon tapping out the once-dominant Yasuda.
(Solid work here, with each man selling quite well. The air of mutual respect was apparent throughout.)
Katsuya Murashima defeated Daiki Nagai
These two Young Lions wrestled to a standstill until Nagai had Murashima on the ropes. A casual chest tap and paintbrush to the cheek later, and Nagai incurred Murshima’s wrath. Wrapping around a headlock, Murashima released Nagai to shoulder-block him to the mat. Nagai would finally pick up some steam with a couple of dropkicks peppered into a flurry of offense. Surviving two submission attempts, Murashima regained composure with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex and running powerslam. There, Murashima tapped Nagai out with a Boston Crab.
(The finals are set, and I see so much depth in Murashima; he’s my favorite Young Lion. Taking out Unbound Co.’s Nagai enforces how much NJPW believes in young Murashima. I feel he’s going to have a huge upside. He may even one day help sell out the Tokyo Dome, something I’d love to see across the ring from Aaron Wolf.)
Knockout Brothers (OSKAR & Yuto-Ice) defeated Shota Umino & Tatsuya Matsumoto
OSKAR immediately took Umino out of the equation on the outside. He rejoined Yuto-Ice to bully Matsumoto. When Umino tried returning to the ring, OSKAR kicked him right back out. The Knockout Brothers proceeded to end Matsumoto with a KO, forcing Umino to watch, and the match was swiftly over.
(Without Yuya Uemura by Umino’s side, this match was exactly what it should have been.
Aaron Wolf, Master Wato, Toru Yano & YOH defeated House Of Torture (Dick Togo, EVIL, Ren Narita & Yujiro Takahashi)
Yano promptly powered his way out of House of Torture’s usual ambush schtick, setting Wato up to usurp the band of heathens. Narita and Takahashi toppled YOH and Yano as EVIL worked on Wato. They assisted their leader with a chairshot on the vulnerable opponent. Narita drove a spike into Wato’s face. YOH slipped in a kick to Narita, breaking the weaponized attack.
YOH tagged in, employing Dragonscrew Legwhips to everyone on the opposing team. Wolf barged in, toppling Narita before delivering a Fireman’s Carry. House of Torture equalized Wolf’s allies before uniting a Dick-to-Dick Contact. Wolf’s teammates came in for the save. Shrugging off Narita’s push-up bar, Wolf sent him flying before tapping Takahashi out with an armbar.
(Nice. Very nice. Thrilling performance by Wolf. Wolf reminded everyone who he was at that Wrestle Kingdom 20 match, and at the right time, given New Beginning is around the corner.)
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.