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NJPW News: Lineups For New Beginning In Sapporo & Osaka Events Announced
Lineups announced for NJPW’s New Beginning events!
Following Wrestle Kingdom 13 this weekend, next up for New Japan Pro Wrestling is CMLL Fantastica Mania beginning on Friday, then the Road To The New Beginning kicks off leading to two New Beginning USA events and then three more in February with two in Sapporo and one in Osaka.
Today, NJPW has revealed the cards for both New Beginning In Sapporo dates on February 2nd and 3rd, as well as New Beginning In Osaka on February 11th. Here’s a look at those lineups, which you’ll be able to stream using the NJPW World subscription:
New Beginning In Sapporo – February 2nd
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White & Bad Luck Fale
EVIL vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Minoru Suzuki vs. SANADA
BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito vs. El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi
Ryusuke Taguchi, Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI vs.
Chase Owens, The Guerrillas Of Destiny, Yujiro Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Tiger Mask vs. TAKA Michinoku & Takashi Iizuka
Ayato Yoshida & Shota Umino vs. Toa Henare & Manabu Nakanishi
Ren Narita vs. Yuya Uemura
New Beginning In Sapporo – February 3rd
IWGP Intercontinental Championship
(C) Tetsuya Naito vs. Taichi
IWGP Tag Team Championship
(C) EVIL & SANADA vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr.
IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship
(C) BUSHI & Shingo Takagi vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI vs.
Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Jay White
Ryusuke Taguchi, Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Toru Yano vs.
The Guerrillas Of Destiny, Yujiro Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Ren Narita vs. TAKA Michinoku & Takashi Iizuka
Ayato Yoshida & Shota Umino vs. Tiger Mask & Manabu Nakanishi
Yota Tsuji vs. Toa Henare
New Beginning In Osaka – February 11th
IWGP Heavyweight Championship
(C) Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White
Bad Luck Fale vs. Kazuchika Okada
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
(C) Taiji Ishimori vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
The Guerrillas Of Destiny vs. Togi Makabe & Toru Yano
Tomoaki Honma & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi
BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito vs. El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi
Ayato Yoshida & Shota Umino vs. EVIL & SANADA
Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku & Takashi Iizuka vs.
Jyushin Thunder Liger, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
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Did your picks win points?
The AEW Continental Classic is underway, with almost everyone competing. Check in here if you haven’t seen the winners and losers of week 1!
Here are your Gold League standings!
- Jon Moxley: 1-0, 3 points
- Swerve Strickland: 1-0, 3 points
- Jay White: 1-0, 3 points
- Rush: 0-1, 0 points
- Mark Briscoe: 0-1, 0 points.
- Jay Lethal: 0-1, 0 points
Here are your Blue League standings!
- Brody King: 1-0, 3 points
- Claudio Castagnoli: 1-0, 3 points
- Daniel Garcia: 0-1, 0 points
- Eddie Kingston: 0-1, 0 points
- Bryan Danielson: Yet to Compete
- Andrade El Idolo: Yet to Compete
My Thoughts:
Nothing too crazy, nothing too wild, this tournament only just got started. The only disappointing point is that they could not get Bryan “cleared to compete” Saturday night. Not sure how much of that is shoot given the bad eye, but this was kinda the problem of wanting him in the tournament over tons of other choices. Bryan wants to face Okada for WrestleKingdom 18, how is Bryan supposed to do that at his best if he’s also gonna be in a round robin, doing five top level matches in about as many weeks? And it takes away from Andrade being able to do something. Also a little surprised we didn’t even hear from Andrade on Saturday.
Now as we heard on Saturday, round two’s matches are set. Gold League will see Mark Briscoe VS Rush, White VS Swerve, and of course, Moxley VS Lethal. Nice variety there, a couple 0-1 guys facing off, as well as two 1-0 guys, and then 1-0 VS 0-1. No offense to Lethal, but he feels like an 0-2 going up against Moxley. Hard to call the other ones but that’s the fun of it. Meanwhile, Blue League sees Brody VS Claudio in a showdown to be 2-0, then Bryan and Andrade finally jump in, Bryan against Eddie and Andrade against Garcia. Sadly, feels like Eddie and Garcia are going 0-2, no way Tony Khan is booking Bryan and Andrade to lose their first shots.
In fact, that could be half the reason they did wait on those two, that’s almost too good for just a first round opener. But I still would’ve done it, same as NJPW does stuff like that for round robins, which this is all modeled after anyway.
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Tony Khan Reveals the Blue and Gold “Leagues!”
Originally livestreamed, Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone officially announced the twelve total entrants and divided them into the two round robin blocks known as the “Blue League” and “Gold League.” If you don’t feel like sifting through the almost 30 minute video, the groups are:
Blue League
- Bryan Danielson
- Andrade El Idolo
- Brody King
- Claudio Castagnoli
- Daniel Garcia
- Eddie Kingston
Gold League
- Jon Moxley
- Swerve Strickland
- Rush
- Mark Briscoe
- Jay Lethal
- Jay White
Tony Khan also explains the rules for the Continental Classic:
- Every match has a 20 minute time limit
- The winner of each match earns 3 points, losers earn 0, 1 point for a draw
- EVERYONE ELSE is banned from ringside for true 1v1 action
Eddie Kingston also joined the selection special as his “life’s work” is on the line in this tournament, both the ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship on the line as part of the modern day North American Triple Crown Eddie, Tony Khan, AEW, ROH and NJPW are looking to create together. Gold League competes tonight on Dynamite while Blue League will have their start this Saturday on Collision. Look for more articles like this one to keep up with the Continental Classic standings over the next six weeks of tournament action!
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