The New Beginning in Sendai | |||
---|---|---|---|
![]() Promotional poster for the event, featuring Tetsuya Naito, Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura, Togi Makabe and Hirooki Goto | |||
Promotion | New Japan Pro-Wrestling | ||
Date | February 14, 2015 [1] | ||
City | Sendai, Japan [1] | ||
Venue | Sendai Sun Plaza Hall [1] | ||
Attendance | 2,900 [1] | ||
Event chronology | |||
| |||
The New Beginning chronology | |||
|
The New Beginning in Sendai was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on February 14, 2015, in Sendai, Miyagi at the Sendai Sun Plaza Hall and featured ten matches, four of which were contested for championships. [1] [2] [3] The event aired worldwide through NJPW's new internet streaming site, NJPW World, [1] and was the eighth event under the New Beginning name.
The New Beginning in Sendai featured ten professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. [4]
The first matches for the event were announced on January 6, 2015, two days after NJPW's biggest event of the year, Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome. [5] [6] The main event was scheduled to feature Shinsuke Nakamura defending the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Yuji Nagata. [5] [6] At Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome, Nakamura made the second defense of his fourth Intercontinental title reign against Kota Ibushi, while Nagata won the New Japan Rumble on the pre-show before the event. [7] The following day, Nagata led his team to a six-man tag team match win over Nakamura and his Chaos stable, before asserting himself as the next challenger for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. [8] In the build-up to the title match, Nagata pinned Nakamura in a tag team match on February 1. [9] The match marked Nagata's return to the IWGP title picture; recently Nagata had been more active in the title picture of the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion, where he held the GHC Heavyweight Championship in 2014. [5] Last time Nagata wrestled for a title owned by NJPW was on June 19, 2010, when he and Wataru Inoue lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship. [10]
Also announced was a rematch from Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome, where Togi Makabe was scheduled to defend his newly won NEVER Openweight Championship against previous champion Tomohiro Ishii. [5] [6] However, on the morning of the event, NJPW announced that Makabe had not recovered from his recent influenza and would be forced to pull out of the match. As a result, the NEVER Openweight Championship was vacated and it was announced that Ishii and Tomoaki Honma would face off in a match to determine the new champion. [11] The event would also feature two matches for titles governed by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). In the first, the returning Rob Conway would defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Hiroyoshi Tenzan. [5] [6] Conway won the title on June 2, 2014, from Tenzan's longtime tag team partner Satoshi Kojima. [12] On November 22, during the opening day of the 2014 World Tag League, Tenzan submitted Conway in a tag team match, where he and Kojima defeated Conway and Jax Dane, before challenging him to a match for his title. [13] This match marked Tenzan's first singles title shot since October 2006. [14] In the second match, Jyushin Thunder Liger would defend the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship against Chase Owens. [5] [6] This is a rematch from Power Struggle on November 8, 2014, where Liger defeated Owens to win the title. [15] After making his first title defense against El Desperado on January 5, 2015, Liger named his longtime tag team partner Tiger Mask his next challenger, [8] but the next day Owens was instead named his second challenger. [5] [6]
The card for The New Beginning in Sendai was completed on January 20 with the addition of six more matches; three tag team matches and three six-man tag team matches. [16] [17] [18] Some matches were part of a follow-up from title matches taking place three days earlier at The New Beginning in Osaka. Early in the card, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson), the junior heavyweight members of the villainous Bullet Club stable, were scheduled to take on Ryusuke Taguchi and the Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and Kushida). [16] [17] At The New Beginning in Osaka, Omega successfully defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Taguchi, while The Young Bucks defeated Time Splitters and defending champions, reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly), in a three-way match to capture the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. [19] However, on February 12, NJPW announced Taguchi had suffered a neck injury and would be replaced in the match by Máscara Dorada. [20] Following the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match at The New Beginning in Osaka, Omega and The Young Bucks attacked Taguchi, giving him a triple-team piledriver, which led to the storyline injury. [21] Dorada, who was working his first tour under a NJPW contract, having signed one in January, [16] then entered the ring and made a title challenge to Omega. [21]
Meanwhile, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata would team up to take on Bullet Club's Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga as part of a follow-up from The New Beginning in Osaka, [16] [17] where Goto and Shibata lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Anderson and Gallows, while Tanahashi lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to their stablemate A.J. Styles, [19] who instantly after his title win left the country to wrestle at an event in the United Kingdom and was thus absent from The New Beginning in Sendai. [22] Another match would see two more Bullet Club representatives, Bad Luck Fale and Yujiro Takahashi, take on Chaos' Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi. [16] [17] This was part of a storyline, where Okada was both physically and mentally broken after losing to Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome, [23] which led to him going on a streak of "bad luck", including suffering a loss against Fale in a match the following day and being involved in a legitimate car accident. [24] Also added to the card was the Ring of Honor (ROH) tag team reDRagon, [16] [17] who would take on Tiger Mask and Jay White, a New Zealand rookie, who replaced Máscara Dorada after he was moved up in the card. [20]
Following The New Beginning in Osaka, where Bullet Club won all four championship matches, [19] The New Beginning in Sendai featured three matches involving Bullet Club and all ended with the villainous stable being defeated. [3] In the first, Máscara Dorada and the Time Splitters defeated Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, with Dorada pinning Omega for the win, before making another challenge for a title match. [1] In the first title match of the event, Jyushin Thunder Liger made his second successful defense of the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship against previous champion, Chase Owens. [1] After the match, Liger again nominated Tiger Mask as his next challenger. [1] The second NWA title match also ended with a win for NJPW as Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Rob Conway to become the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion. [1] This marked Tenzan's first singles title win in ten years. [25] [26] Following the win, Tenzan was challenged to a title match by Satoshi Kojima. [3]
The seventh match continued the rivalry between Kazuchika Okada and Bad Luck Fale. After pinning Tama Tonga at The New Beginning in Osaka, Okada continued his revival by pinning another Bullet Club member, Yujiro Takahashi, to win the match at The New Beginning in Sendai and afterwards, much like in Osaka, taunted Fale by posing over his fallen stablemate. [27] Following the match, Okada also challenged Fale to a match at the 2015 New Japan Cup. [3] In the third title match of the event, Tomohiro Ishii defeated Tomoaki Honma to win the now vacant NEVER Openweight Championship for the third time. [1] Though officially recognized as the new champion, Ishii instead dubbed himself an "interim" champion, suggesting he wanted another match with Togi Makabe. [1] [28] In the main event of the evening, Shinsuke Nakamura made his third successful defense of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Yuji Nagata. [1] [29] Afterwards, Nakamura suggested that his Chaos stablemate Kazuchika Okada should challenge for his title next, instead of continuing to chase the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. [30]
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter gave the match between Honma and Ishii a full five-star rating. [31]
The two NWA title matches teased at The New Beginning in Sendai took place during the following "Road to Invasion Attack 2015" tour. On March 21, Tenzan successfully defended the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Kojima and the following day Liger successfully defended the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship against Tiger Mask. [32] [33]
Masahiro Chono is an American-born Japanese retired professional wrestler and actor best known for his 26-year stint with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). As the leader of nWo Japan, Team 2000 and Black New Japan, he was the promotion's top heel for much of his career, beginning in 1994 when he adopted a yakuza inspired gimmick.
Shinjiro Otani is a Japanese semi-retired professional wrestler and the current acting president of Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). He is currently inactive from pro-wrestling competition due to a cervical spine injury sustained in April 2022. A product of the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) dojo, Otani is best known for his longtime association with Zero1, a promotion he founded in 2001 along with Shinya Hashimoto.
Satoshi Kojima is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is signed to both New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he is a former two-time MLW World Heavyweight Champion and current one half of the MLW World Tag Team Champions in his second reign. He also makes appearances for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). Considered to be one of the greatest Japanese professional wrestlers of the 21st century and of all-time, he was the first wrestler to hold NJPW's IWGP Heavyweight Championship and AJPW's Triple Crown Championship simultaneously, the fourth to win the three major heavyweight championships in Japan with the Triple Crown Heavyweight, IWGP Heavyweight, and Noah's GHC Heavyweight Championship, and one of three wrestlers to hold the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, Triple Crown Championship, and NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, and is an overall eight-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions.
Hiroyoshi Yamamoto is a Japanese professional wrestler who is signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and is better known by his ring name Hiroyoshi Tenzan. With Satoshi Kojima, in 2008, they won the World's Strongest Tag Determination League in All Japan Pro Wrestling and the G1 Tag League in NJPW, becoming the only tag team which has done both. He is a four-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion and a record twelve-time IWGP Tag Team Champion. He is also a former National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Heavyweight Champion.
Hiroshi Tanahashi is a Japanese professional wrestler, sports executive and podcaster. He is signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he serves as the president and representative director of the promotion, and is also an active wrestler.
Yuji Nagata is a Japanese professional wrestler, and former mixed martial artist and amateur wrestler signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Considered one of the greatest Japanese wrestlers of all time, he is the fifth longest-reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion with a reign of 392 days, and formerly held the record for most successful title defenses with 10, until Hiroshi Tanahashi broke the record at Wrestle Kingdom VI. He is the only wrestler to have won Japanese professional wrestling's three biggest singles tournaments; New Japan Pro-Wrestling's G1 Climax, All Japan Pro Wrestling's Champion Carnival and Pro Wrestling Noah's Global League. In addition, he is the only man to have held all four major heavyweight championships in Japanese professional wrestling, the IWGP, World, GHC and Triple Crown heavyweight championships, making him the only "Grand Slam" champion.
Shinya Makabe, better known by his ring name Togi Makabe is a Japanese professional wrestler, trained by and performing for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former one-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, two-time IWGP Tag Team Champion, two-time NEVER Openweight Champion and one-time NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion.
Tencozy is a professional wrestling tag team that has competed in New Japan Pro-Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling. Regarded as one of the greatest tag teams in New Japan history, They are seven-time tag team champions. In their history, Tencozy currently hold the third longest IWGP Tag Team Championship reign and are currently the first and only team to have won both the G1 Tag League and World's Strongest Tag Determination League in general and in the same year (2008).
Chaos is a professional wrestling stable performing in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The group was formed in 2009, when nearly all the members of the Great Bash Heel (G.B.H) stable turned on leader Togi Makabe and reformed under new leader Shinsuke Nakamura. Soon after, the new group was named Chaos, with Nakamura as the leader. As the leader of Chaos, Nakamura was one of NJPW's top wrestlers, winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the IWGP Intercontinental Championship as well as the 2011 G1 Climax and the 2014 New Japan Cup.
Suzuki-gun was a villainous professional wrestling stable primarily appearing in the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, and making occasional appearances in All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The group was founded in December 2010 by IWGP Heavyweight Champion Satoshi Kojima as Kojima-gun, but the members of the stable turned on Kojima and appointed Minoru Suzuki as their new leader in May 2011. Suzuki-gun added several new members, such as Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer, known collectively as the Killer Elite Squad (K.E.S.), who are three-time IWGP Tag Team Champions and two-time NWA World Tag Team Champions as part of the stable. Other accomplishments attained by the stable include Suzuki and Archer winning the 2011 G1 Tag League and founding members Taichi and Taka Michinoku becoming one-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. As the leader of Suzuki-gun, Suzuki became one of NJPW's top wrestlers and has challenged for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on multiple occasions.
Power Struggle (2013) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on November 9, 2013, in Osaka, Osaka, at the Bodymaker Colosseum and featured ten matches, five of which were contested for championships. It was the third event under the Power Struggle name.
The New Beginning in Osaka (2014) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on February 11, 2014, in Osaka, Osaka at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. The event featured ten matches, four of which were contested for championships. It was the sixth event under the New Beginning name.
King of Pro-Wrestling (2014) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on October 13, 2014, in Tokyo at Ryōgoku Kokugikan and featured ten matches, six of which were contested for championships. It was the third event under the King of Pro-Wrestling name.
Power Struggle (2014) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on November 8, 2014, in Osaka, Osaka, at the Bodymaker Colosseum.
Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, which took place at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on January 4, 2015. It was the 24th January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the first event on the 2015 NJPW schedule. The event featured ten professional wrestling matches and one pre-show match, six of which were for championships.
The New Beginning in Osaka (2015) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on February 11, 2015, in Osaka, Osaka at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium and featured ten matches, four of which were contested for championships.
Destruction in Okayama (2015) was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on September 23, 2015, in Okayama, Okayama at the Momotaro Arena. The event featured nine matches, four of which were contested for championships. It was the tenth event under the Destruction name.
Wrestling Hinokuni is a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).
Ultimate Crush was a major professional wrestling and mixed martial arts event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on May 2, 2003, at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. The card contained a mixture of pro wrestling matches and mixed martial arts fights. The show was headlined by Yoshihiro Takayama defending the NWF Heavyweight Championship against Yuji Nagata, who also defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a unification match.
The New Beginning in Osaka (2020) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event, promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It took place on February 9, 2020 at the Osaka-jō Hall in Osaka, Japan.