Roppongi 3K def. Killer Elite Squad and Takashi Iizuka
Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi def. Toa Henare and Tomoaki Honma
David Finlay and Juice Robinson def. Best Friends
Will Ospreay, Hirooki Goto, and Tomohiro Ishii def. KUSHIDA, Jeff Cobb, and Yuji Nagata
GOD and Taiji Ishimori def. Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, and Ryusuke Taguchi
Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi, El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, Shingo Takagi, and BUSHI
Jay White, Bad Luck Fale, and Gedo def. Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and YOSHI-HASHI
New Year Dash has traditionally been New Japan’s equivalent of the Raw after Wrestlemania, where anything can happen and big angles unfold. Previous years were notable for Kenny Omega kicking AJ Styles out of Bullet Club and Chris Jericho going after Naito to begin their year-long feud in 2018. This year’s show didn’t feature anything as explosive as previous years, but the tag matches served to set up some of the major angles for the early part of 2019. The show was also notable by the absences of The Elite – no Young Bucks, no Kota Ibushi, and no Kenny Omega. It also saw Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi be rehabilitated into Bullet Club, which suggests that The Elite really might be done in New Japan for the foreseeable future.
Coming out of Dash this year the biggest angle is Jay White challenging Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Title. Bullet Club spoilt YOSHI-HASHI’s return match by once again defeating the Mega Aces, and after White pinned YOSHI-HASHI with a Blade Runner he called out Tanahashi, and the Bullet Club team left Okada and Tanahashi lying in the ring to close the show. In the press conference held on January 7th Tanahashi accepted Jay White’s challenge, which has been set for the New Beginning in Osaka show on February 11th. I doubt that Tanahashi will drop the title in his first defence, but it clearly shows that White is being pushed to replace Omega as the top foreign star in NJPW.
The Suzuki-gun vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon match also set up a number of angles going forward, as there are now potential challengers for the Intercontinental Title, the Heavyweight Tag Team Titles, and the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles. Taichi even managed to pin Naito for the Suzuki-gun victory, admittedly after hitting him with the Intercontinental Title, which has led to an IC Title match being scheduled for the New Beginning in Sapporo on February 3rd. Again, I doubt that Taichi will be taking the title off Naito, but the fact that NJPW are letting Taichi main event a show in his hometown of Sapporo bodes well for Taichi’s prospects in 2019. The same show will see ZSJ and Suzuki challenging EVIL and SANADA, and El Desperado and Kanemaru challenging BUSHI and Shingo. Given that Desperado and Kanemaru have just come off a 304 day reign I can’t imagine that they will get the belts back, although ZSJ and Suzuki have a chance to pick up some gold depending on what the plans are for EVIL and SANADA. Everyone talks about both members of LIJ being ready for a singles run, but they’ve also proved to be the cornerstone of the tag team division of the last two years, so I’d expect them to retain here.
The other notable result coming out of New Year Dash was that GOD and Ishimori retained the NEVER Six Man Tag Team Titles. After GOD lost their titles at Wrestle Kingdom this wasn’t a particularly surprising result, although it does mean that Ishimori remains a double champion. This match also laid the seeds for Ishimori’s first Junior Heavyweight Title defence, against Taguchi in Osaka on February 11th. We also saw Chase and Yujiro return to the Bullet Club fold to help them pick up the win in this match, which seems to be another nail in the coffin for any chance of The Elite staying in New Japan in the immediate future.
As well as announcing the cards for the New Beginning shows, there were some major announcements about talent at the January 7th press conference. Kota Ibushi suffered a concussion in his match against Will Ospreay at Wrestle Kingdom, and it was announced that he will miss the next tour to recover. This seems to indicate that he is staying with New Japan, at least for the time being. Secondly, it was announced that Takashi Iizuka is retiring, and will have a retirement ceremony on February 21st. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I really don’t like Iizuka’s current gimmick, so I won’t be sad to see that go, but he has been a long-serving member of the roster, and before he got too old to work he was a good wrestler. I’m sure that his retirement ceremony will be a fun show, and involve a lot of biting. The third piece of news is that KUSHIDA will be leaving New Japan when his contract expires on January 31st. It’s been rumoured for a while that KUSHIDA might be joining WWE, and this seems to strongly hint towards it. There’s been no official confirmation that he will be going to NXT or anything else, but I image that we will hear more about that come the end of the month. The press conference sounded like it was quite emotional for KUSHIDA, who found it difficult to keep his composure when Tanahashi asked him about his experiences over the last eight years.
The biggest news to come out of the post-New Year Dash period is that Tokyo Sports reported that Kenny Omega is leaving New Japan. According to the report, Omega said that he needs time away from New Japan because “There is no real place for me to fit, so it’s best for me not to be in (NJPW). I can’t be there working under Tanahashi. I don’t think he’s surpassed me, don’t think he’s better. If we can, I want to face him again. But I need time away, and not just from New Japan.” (Translation courtesy of Chris Charlton @reasonjp). There is some debate about whether or not this is a work, since Kenny has history with teasing leaving New Japan, but given the Wrestle Kingdom result and Kenny’s seeming frustration with criticism of his championship reign, it wouldn’t surprise me if we do see Kenny leave NJPW for some time. I think the most likely outcome is that Omega goes to All Elite Wrestling and continues to have a working relationship with New Japan. I doubt that we have seen the last of Kenny in a New Japan ring, particularly if Ibushi continues to work there (and with the Madison Square Garden show coming up), but he certainly isn’t booked for the New Beginning Shows.
Overall, New Year Dash followed the trend of Wrestle Kingdom 13 by being more of a reset than anything shocking. All the top titles have angles set for the next couple of months and with the absence of The Elite, Jay White continues his role as the top foreign heel in the company. The bigger stories came after Dash, when KUSHIDA and Omega announced that they will be leaving NJPW. KUSHIDA is very likely to turn up in WWE, but Omega is harder to figure out. I expect to see him back in New Japan this year, although if he takes up the rumoured WWE contract offer that will obviously not be the case. Most likely though we will see him in an AEW ring and back in New Japan at some point to continue his stories with Ibushi and Tanahashi.
