WhiteTail Wrestling

In front of a sold out crowd of 5,400 at Edion Arena New Japan Pro Wrestling put on one of their finest shows since the end of their golden age which ended with a global pandemic.

Two of the matches on this show could be considered as contenders for match of the year and another match featured likely the final encounter between Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi whose rivalry which had begun almost exactly 12 years ago with the raimaker shock and is perhaps the greatest rivalry of all in professional wrestling.

Despite the success of the show it represented the end of an era for NJPW with perhaps the shows name New Beginning never being as accurate as it is right now. Okada the Rainmaker the biggest star in the promotion is leaving by the end of the month and Will Ospreay the best wrestler in the world right now and one of the all time greats at the age of 30 wrestled his final match as a full time NJPW performer in the bloodbath of a main event.

Outside of the three great matches this was a completely forgettable card with a bunch of middling undercard matches and a tag team title change with Chase Owens and Kenta defeating ELP and Hikuleo in an average match made worse by the fact that a mediocre team cheated to win the titles. Unless this is set up to be a transitional title run to move the belts onto another babyface team this division is set for mediocrity for the foreseeable future.

The tag title change took place after the Okada vs Tanahashi match which I can only believe was designed to give the crowd a rest prior to the Danielson vs ZSJ match. It’s harsh to say it but the tag title match was the perfect piss break match. 

Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi and their rivalry date back 12 years with some of the greatest matches in NJPW history. But with the upcoming exit of Okada from NJPW this was seen as the final opportunity for these two to have one final match against each other despite the fact that the two of them are clearly friends and were the Never Openweight Six Man Champions along with Tomohiro Ishii until Okada relinquished the titles due to his upcoming exit from the promotion.

This match was brilliant the crowd were right into the action cheering for both men and reducing Okada to tears in his final performance in front of the Osaka crowd. Tanahashi has slowed down as a performer as he approaches his fifties but the new President of NJPW can still work a great match in the ring despite the physical challenges of age. A story match with an emotional and fully invested crowd was perfect for him. The moves themselves were pretty much the usual from these two but the work and the selling were perfect. Certainly not their best match against each other but the perfect way to end their story.

The match between Zach Sabre Jr and Bryan Danielson at the AEW Wrestledream show last year was one of the most perfect displays of pro wrestling I have ever seen. Everything that was done in that match was flawless but to me despite being a ***** match their was something missing. This match had whatever their previous match was lacking. The technical wrestling on display was out of this world 30 minutes of pure perfection. The crowd here was also perfect completely invested in the match and enhancing the action even further. NJPW crowds and the atmosphere and the lion mark in the ring can make great matches even greater and this was perhaps the greatest example of this. Perfect technical wrestling and hard hitting intense action with brutal strikes, technical holds that nobody else in the world can do and great submission attempts. Awesome storytelling with both men wanting to prove that they were the superior technical wrestler by winning by submission but by the end both men would settle for a pinfall and tried for it with ZSJ eventually getting the flash pin. This was one of the great matches ****** and on a level with the match of last year Omega vs Ospreay. This will be very difficult to beat for match of the year and if it is beaten that match will be out of this world.

The United Empire vs The Bullet Club War Dogs have been building a violent fued since Wrestle Kingdom last month. Finlay the leader of the War Dogs defeated the United Empire’s leader Ospreay at Wrestle Kingdom in a great match which was made worse by Finaly being in it as Moxley vs Ospreay could have been a true contender for the match of the year. The story they have been telling is that Finlay wants to destroy Ospreay on the way out with the clear plan that he is seen as the best foreign wrestler in the promotion. This match an absolute war continued the story as it was Ospreay alone in the destroyed ring with wooden canvas exposed that was finally beaten by Finlay and the War Dogs after over an hour of extreme bloody violence.

This match was a war games style match with a small cage on the outside like a dog pound fitting for a War Dogs match. The match was extremely long at over an hour and was filled with extreme spots and violence with everyone involved busted open by the finish. The match had chairs, tables, ladders, barbed wire and thumbtacks virtually everything you would expect in a death match. I thought the Swerve Strickland vs Hangman Adam Page death match last year had moments that made me feel uncomfortable this match was even worse for that particularly by the finish with the war dogs pulling apart the ring and exposing wooden boards which were not suited for wrestling and would often lead to wrestlers losing their footing and falling through the ring slightly. An extremely dangerous situation was where members of the war dogs would have to move sticking out boards to prevent their opponents falling straight onto these boards during spots. Thankfully nobody seemed to be seriously hurt although Henare was bandaged up which was concerning. The finish came when all members of the United Empire with the exception of Ospreay and Francisco Akira were handcuffed to the cage. Akira who put in a brave display was decimated and Ospreay shoved his team-mate to the outside sparing him. Ospreay tried one more desperation hidden blade but collapsed onto the wooden boards. The war dogs destroy Ospreay and Finaly pins him. Ospreay puts somebody over on the way out whether Finlay was thr right person will be heavily debated. To me Zach Sabre Jr has far more upside but Gedo has a liking for evil heel wrestlers and will no doubt continue to push Finlay regardless of what I or any other fans in Japan or I the West think. If Finlay stays away from the main title scene and has decent matches things can work out but I believe he could be seriously exposed if he enters the main event scene. Finlay is a good wrestler but he is not great. NJPW is where the best go to perform Finlay is not the best. Zach Sabre Jr on the other hand has been a brilliant and loyal performer for NJPW for many years now. This should be his time to rise to the top. Naito needs a decent run with the belt but unless one of the new stars is ready ZSJ should be the man to become the next champion.

As the New Beginning comes to an end at the end of this month and the era of Okada and Ospreay comes to an end. NJPW must look to the future it will take the right decision making inside and outside the ring but NJPW is something special. With the right decision making inside and outside the ring NJPW can reach another golden age it will be a lot harder than it would have been if they still had Okada and Ospreay but the future us still bright for the lion mark.