NJPW The New Beginning in Sapporo Day 1 Preview

In the early hours of January 27th in North America, NJPW will be hosting their biggest show since Wrestle Kingdom and New Year Dash.

The New Beginning in Sapporo will be a good starting point for new fans of NJPW, as it’s where all the major storylines for the year will begin to advance. Between the main events of Minoru Suzuki vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Intercontential Championship and Kenny Omega vs. Jay White for Day 1 and Day 2 of the New Beginning tour, we are guaranteed to have two blow away matches this weekend.

In order to be prepared for the show, here is a brief rundown of the card and stories involved in a few of the matches. NJPW is gearing up for their next few months of stories, so buckle in, we’re in for quite the ride.

Michael Elgin vs. Katsuya Kitamura

The young lion, Katsuya Kitamura, continues his Best of Seven Series where he challenged seven NJPW superstars to test his skills since winning the Young Lion’s Cup in December. Kitamura is a beast, and these matches will serve to highlight his growth. Given that he’s one of the older young lions in the company, it might be time to pull the trigger and start pushing him without an excursion. Time will tell. This match will be a good test of how ready he is. Expect Elgin to go over in a hard-fought match.

Kushida, Tiger Mask IV, Jushin Thunder Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Suzuki-gun (Taka Michinoku, El Desperado, Taichi, Kanemaru, & Iizuka)

This match isn’t overly interesting, but I expect to see a lot of action from Kushida in it. After losing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title match at Wrestle Kingdom, I think he’s going to pick up the win here to being to re-establish his momentum as we head towards the Best of the Super Junior tournament later this spring/summer.