‘Dog pound cage’ headlines in Osaka
It’s been an emotional road to major New Beginning events, and February 11 will likely see the most emotionally powerful night in recent memory in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. As NJPW makes one key farewell, and prepares for another with the final chapter in a company defining rivalry, we also see a battle to determine the best technical wrestler in the world, and the IWGP Tag Team Championships at stake on a loaded, sellout card in Osaka.
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Main event: Steel Cage- United Empire (Will Ospreay, TJP, Jeff Cobb, Francesco Akira & HENARE) vs BULLET CLUB War Dogs (David Finlay, Gabe Kidd, Drilla Moloney, Alex Coughlin & Clark Connors)
Will Ospreay’s plan of leaving full time NJPW competition as the first ever IWGP Global Champion was scuppered at Wrestle Kingdom, when David Finlay was able to emerge from a hostile three way environment with the white and gold, and with ill feeling between United Empire and BULLET CLUB War Dogs only continuing to boil. Earlier that night on January 4, Catch 2/2 had continued their own war with Drilla Moloney and Clark Connors, and when new champions were crowned, the chip on the shoulder only deepened for the War Dogs; a chip exacerbated by Gabe Kidd and Alex Coughlin’s perceived snub at the Tokyo Dome, ‘relegated’ to the kickoff Ranbo.
All this tension would carry forth into Sumida and a ten man tag for United Empire and the War Dogs that was out of control from the very start. Then, when the bout finally made its way to the ring, an accidental drop from Akira onto the metal turnbuckle saw the ‘War Ready’ Kidd gushing blood, and the red mist falling on his teammates. Finlay demanded retribution be paid right away, and Akira was soon brutally bloodied in a wild scene that put fans in as much danger as the competitors.
Ospreay would take to the microphone and issued a challenge to settle the score between the two factions, throwing to Finlay to choose the rules. The Rebel would put in a determined response of ‘no rules, and no escape’; a steel cage. While it’s clear that neither team will back down from this fight, Finlay would only issue a challenge that was to his side’s advantage. In the days since, Finlay has talked of the bout being a ‘Dog Pound Cage Match’, wherein timed entrances will see the War Dogs given a one man advantage through the bulk of the bout. With United Empire apparently further fragmented by the day as a power vacuum makes itself apparent, can they survive bloody brutality in Osaka, or will the War Dogs walk away with the biggest victory of their eight months as a unit within BULLET CLUB?
7th Match: Bryan Danielson vs Zack Sabre Jr.
Singles record: 2-1 Danielson
For the first time ever in Japan, a battle to determine the best technical wrestler int he world sees Zack Sabre Jr collide with the American Dragon Bryan Danielson.
Sabre and Danielson’s past goes back to a pair of meetings in Europe, where the already established Danielson would face a young Sabre on the rise. ZSJ would later reflect on how important the meetings, which forced the Seattle native to acknowledge his foe’s potential while bringing the Briton to reflect on just how far he had to go, was on his career. Sabre’s future transition to the Japanese scene in Pro-Wrestling NOAH and then NJPW may not have happened had it not been for the battles in Triple X in the UK and WxW in Germany, but what was a formative period for Sabre was but a transitional chapter for Danielson.
As Bryan went on to superstardom in WWE before a period of injury enforced inactivity, Sabre would rise to become talked of as the most proficient technical wrestler in the world, so much so that a Wrestling Observer award named after Danielson would be won consistently by Sabre instead. The desire for both to one day prove who was better on the mat reached a fever pitch, but the match itself would be denied by fate on multiple occasions before finally happening in AEW in September 2023.
Danielson would be victorious on the night, but not by submission, the Busaiku Knee knockout shot leading to a pin in a match that in ZSJ’s eyes ‘proved nothing’. After Sabre issued a challenge at New Year Dash on January 5, Danielson would spit that the Frontman ‘has no Fighting Spirit”, while Sabre would bit back that Danielson’s spirit would be broken at his hands. What- or who- will give in this clash of stubborn wills?
6th Match: IWGP Tag Team Championships- Guerrillas of Destiny (El Phantasmo & Hikuleo) vs BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens & KENTA)
Tag record: 1-0 GoD
For the second time in the tour, Hikuleo and El Phantasmo will be taking on KENTA and Chase Owens. New Beginning in Nagoya started the January tour in positive form for the Guerrillas of Destiny, who took advantage of their challengers’ lack of experience as a duo to retain the NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championships. The IWGP Tag titles must still be defended before the champions can put their one time BULLET CLUB teammates in the rear view mirror, however. Having produced in multiman previews through the tour, will KENTA and Owens have the refined teamwork needed to become the 101st IWGP Champions, or will ELP and Hikuleo remain double champs?
5th Match: Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi
Singles record: 8-4-3 Okada
It’s a rivalry that defined an era in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and all of professional wrestling at large. Kazuchika Okada versus Hiroshi Tanahashi for many has been the epitome of a marquee match that has symbolised the pinnacle of pro-wrestling for the last decade plus. As Kazuchika Okada counts down to his last matches as an NJPW wrestler, the Ace and the Rainmaker will be opposite one another perhaps one final time in Osaka. 12 years almost to the day, in the same location as the Rainmaker Shock that granted Kazuchika Okada his first IWGP Heavyweight Championship and changed everything, who will leave this final fated encounter victorious?
4th Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji, Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito) vs Just Five Guys (SANADA, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura, Taichi & TAKA Michinoku)
After what’s set to be a heated Faction gauntlet match on February 5 in Korakuen, Just Five Guys and LIJ continue to posture as they prepare for February 24, and singles matches that will culminate in SANADA rematching with Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
3rd Match: Tiger Mask, Tomoaki Honma, Shota Umino & El Desperado vs HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL, SHO, Ren Narita, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro Takahashi)
With the tour closer in Sapporo two weeks away, Shota Umino sets his sights on the NEVER Openweight Champion EVIL, while SHO will be looking to make El Desperado’s decision to deny him a title shot in favour of a special singles match in its place something to regret.
2nd Match: Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) vs United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Callum Newman)
Bishamon team as a duo for the first time since losing the IWGP Tag Team Championships at Wrestle Kingdom, to face United Empire’s Great-O-Khan and Callum Newman. New KOPW 2024 title holder O-Khan, and the rapidly ascendant Newman make for an intriguing balance of power and pace, and certainly one that can make the former champions sweat. The winners of this bout will likely have a keen eye on the results of the IWGP Tag title match later in the evening as well.
1st Match: YOH & Toru Yano vs Ryusuke Taguchi & Boltin Oleg
Two unique pairings face off in tag team action as Toru Yano and YOH present an eccentric CHAOS duo opposite Ryusuke Taguchi and the Boltin Oleg. Boltin has been sure to make a statement in his first appearances so far in 2024. After last year ended with Taguchi’s best equine friend Masked Horse teaming with the now suddenly retired Masked Boltin, maybe the Hooded Hooves have given advice to this tag team?
