4 New Japan Stories YOU NEED TO KNOW Before New Beginning In Sapporo

Multi-Man Madness Previews Osaka 

A ten-man tag match pitting CHAOS quintet Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Will Ospreay, Gedo, and YOSHI-HASHI against Los Ingobernables de Japon fivesome SANADA, EVIL, Hiromu Takahashi, BUSHI, and Tetsuya Naito sees NJPW combine five singles matches from New Beginning in Osaka (February 10) into one big cluster. It’s like the WWF Attitude Era all over again.

For clarification, the Osaka card features:

Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA

Hirooki Goto vs. EVIL

Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi

Gedo vs. BUSHI

YOSHI-HASHI vs. Tetsuya Naito

With so much storytelling to achieve and so many bone-benders involved, the match (taking place on night two) should be given a decent amount of time. Let’s hope it is, anyway, because there are some fascinating potential showdowns contained within the bout.

The most obvious one is another clash between Wrestle Kingdom opponents Okada and Naito. Their match at the Tokyo Dome may not have rendered the rest of the year’s wrestling obsolete like most Kingdom headliners have in recent years, but their match was still an absorbing thriller and we cannot wait to see more.

It will also be very interesting to see how Okada’s Osaka opponent SANADA acquits himself as he steps up a level. The showdown with Okada is the talented 29-year-old former AJPW and TNA talent’s biggest match of his career. In recent months the likes of EVIL, Juice Robinson, and Beretta upped their games in feature matches on smaller New Japan supercards. We fully expect SANADA to do the same. His interactions with Okada in Sapporo should give a good indication of what to expect.

Will Ospreay is always sensational whenever he steps into the ring. The potential for his exchanges with Naito and recent rival Takahashi are also mouth-watering. Takahashi has been one of New Japan’s biggest success stories of 2017, which is high praise. Few others in such a wrestling-orientated company could have gotten over a stuffed toy (his pet cat, Darryl Jr.) to such a degree. The charismatic star is the perfect foil for aerial marvel Ospreay.

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