BRM Reviews NJPW New Beginning in Sapporo 2020: Day 2

[Big Red Machine]

NJPW New Beginning in Sapporo 2020: Day 2 (2/2/2020)- Sapporo, Japan


TOA HENARE vs. YOTA TSUJI- 5.5/10
Tsuji’s back got worked over.

TIGER MASK IV, HIROYOSHI TENZAN, & MANABU NAKANISHI vs. TOGI MAKABE, TOMOAKI HONMA, & YUYA UEMURA- 5.25/10

GABRIEL KIDD vs. EL PHANTASMO- 2.5/10
This was all of the usual El Phantasmo sh*t that annoys me, combined with the painful predictability of a veteran vs. young-boy match.

LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (Shingo Takagi, EVIL, & BUSHI) vs. CHAOS (HIrooki Goto, Robbie Eagles, & Tomohiro Ishii)- 6/10

ROPPONGI 3K, JON MOXLEY, & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, & DOUKI)- 5.75/10
Suzuki-Gun jump the bell on their opponents. We then immediately spilled to outside for several minutes of the usual bullsh*t, where the rules apparently don’t apply. Moxley vs. Suzuki was exciting, as you would expect. Everything else was very blah.

LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (Hiromi Takahashi, Tetsuya Naito, & Sanada) vs. BULLET CLUB (Jay White, Taiji Ishimori, & KENTA) (w/Gedo)- 7/10
Bullet Club jump the bell on their opponents. Soon afterwards they wound up on the outside, where they stayed for a long time without getting counted out. Other than that this was a great six-man tag, but I’m having a lot of trouble getting into these matches when I know they’re nothing but filler.

RPW BRITISH HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Zack Sabre Jr.(c) vs. Will Ospreay- 7.5/10
Even with a title on the line, they won’t let Zack and Ospreay have the main event over Okada and f*cking TAICHI in a match where everyone knows Okada isn’t going to lose? Way to bury the RevPro belt. Again.
Not that this match wasn’t great or anything, but I found this to be pretty disappointing when you consider the talent involved and what they’ve done together in the past. The story here wasn’t really much of a story so much as it was Ospreay coming close but then losing.


KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. TAICHI (w/Miho Abe)- 8.75/10
Like an idiot, Okada turned his back on Taichi, so Taichi jumped the bell o him. Why do these babyfaces never learn?
The story here was both men working on each other’s necks. Taichi had the advantage due to the damage he did to Okada’s neck last night, but Okada came it and got the win… which we all knew would happen, but they did a great job of getting me close to maybe kind of doubting that fact, which is quite the accomplishment for Okada vs. Taichi.
Both men- but Okada in particular- sold beautifully here. They went thirty minutes but it never felt like it dragged because of their selling and the pace of the match. The only negative was the utter disregard shown for the count-out rule. This is surely the best match Taichi has ever been involved in.


This was a very good show from New Japan. Obviously, that is mostly on the strength of the main event, but there wasn’t anything particularly frustrating on this show, and the undercard was very easy to sit through. Still, it would have been a lot more enjoyable if they had condensed this show and yesterday’s show into one show.