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With Wrestle Kingdom 12 firmly in our rear view mirror, we’re moving on to New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual February spectacular and the universe is set right once again because it is indeed February for this one!
This year, New Beginning is split up into three shows, up one from last year’s two. All three shows, naturally, will air live and in full on NJPW World, so why not watch along with the best pro wrestling community on the internet?
Today’s action takes place in Osaka's Edion Arena Osaka, kicking off at a brisk 3AM Eastern / 12AM Pacific, and is headlined by Kazuchika Okada defending his IWGP Heavyweight Championship against SANADA and it’s all Los Ingobernables de Japon vs. Chaos from there as we have no less then five singles matches on deck between the two factions today.
Yuji Nagata def. Katsuya Kitamura by pinfall with a back suplex. (Kitamura Challenge Series Match 6)
Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) def. Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH) by submission with a high-angle Boston Crab from Kanemaru on SHO. (non-title match)
Taguchi Japan (KUSHIDA, Michael Elgin, Ryusuke Taguchi, & Togi Makabe) def. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, TAKA Michinoku, & Takashi Iizuka) by pinfall with the King Kong Knee Drop from Makabe on Michinoku.
Chaos (“Switchblade” Jay White, Tomohiro Ishii, & Toru Yano) def. David Finlay, Juice Robinson, & Toa Henare by referee stoppage after repeated crucifix elbows to the head from White on Henare.
Rey Mysterio appears on the video screen to challenge Jushin Liger to a match at Strong Style Evolved! Liger, seated at the commentary booth, accepts!
BUSHI def. Gedo by pinfall with MX.
Tetsuya Naito def. YOSHI-HASHI by pinfall with Destino.
After the match, Taichi appears out of nowhere and drags Naito off, so, uh, that’s a thing.
Will Ospreay (c) def. Hiromu Takahashi by pinfall with the OsCutter to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.
Hirooki Goto (c) def. EVIL by pinfall with GTR to retain NEVER Openweight Championship.
Kazuchika Okada (c) def. SANADA by pinfall with the Rainmaker to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
After the match, Okada challenged Will Ospreay to a champion vs. champion match at the anniversary show next month!
Enjoy the show!