Editor’s Note: We’re going to be testing out a new post-event podcast format on Time Limit. Along with the article below, we also have a podcast discussing New Year Dash attached to this article. You can listen either in the audio link above or the Youtube video embedded below. Please let me know if you have any feedback!
The RAW After Wrestle Kingdom
New Japan Pro Wrestling’s (NJPW) January 5th card — New Year Dash !! — is the closest thing the promotion will ever get to having a Monday Night RAW after Wrestlemania. In fact, both cards have a somewhat similar premise: Deliver with surprises, produce memorable moments, and help point toward what storylines the promotion is focused on after wrapping up many programs at their last show.
Friday’s card was not one to watch for match quality. Most matches were forgettable. But it was important to view as it showed numerous angles that will be built in the coming weeks. Some ideas pitched on Friday were fun and show promise. Others seemed not so appealing.
Frankly, there were a lot of different developments on the same night. While most Time Limit pieces focus on one part of an event, today we’ll be going over all of the top headlines from New Year Dash 2024.
SANADA Set For Rematch
It looks like SANADA will get a shot to earn the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship back from Tetsuya Naito. After all five members of Just 5 Guys defeated Los Ingobernables de Japon — with TAKA Michinoku scoring a rare pinfall victory — SANADA called for a rematch against Naito.
Naito was initially hesitant about giving SANADA a rematch. Winning a tag team match where you didn’t even score the pinfall isn’t the strongest argument for a shot against the biggest title in the promotion. However, upon reflection, Naito remembered that SANADA made the save for him at Wrestle Kingdom, stopping House of Torture’s EVIL from coming into the ring and ruining his Tokyo Dome moment. Because of this, he said he is willing to give him a rematch.
I don’t hate this being the next title match, although I’m not very excited either. After seeing SANADA as a champion for two-thirds of 2023, it felt like a timely end of the road for him to lose at Wrestle Kingdom. It might have been nice to see Naito in a title program with someone else before going back to SANADA, just to get a taste of something different. However, what makes me not too annoyed about this is the fact that, if it happens, it will come during a not-so-important part of the NJPW schedule. From now until the New Japan Cup in March, things are a little quiet in the promotion.
Just 5 Guys and LIJ did a face-off in the ring after the match, and it looked like a potential DOUKI vs. Desperado match might be in the cards as well. We’ll see regarding that one.
Will Ospreay Wants Faction Wars
Will Ospreay’s departure from NJPW next month — leaving his long-term wrestling home to join the stacked AEW roster — will include a chaotic send-off match.
A match between Bullet Club and United Empire was thrown out after five minutes on Friday, as a brawl forced the referee to rule the bout a no contest. The fight continued after the bell and throughout the Sumida City Gymnasium, causing ripped-apart guardrails and re-arranged chairs. Somewhere along the line, Gabe Kidd was cut open, causing his entire face to get covered in blood.
After this brawl came to an end, Ospreay challenged Bullet Club to a five-versus-five match against United Empire in what will be his final NJPW match (some interpreted this as his final NJPW match ever, but it’s more likely that he meant his final match before he heads over to AEW full-time). He allowed Bullet Club to pick the stipulation, which ended up being a cage match.
I initially thought this might be a first for NJPW, but it is not. This X (Formerly known as Twitter) thread outlines how cages have been utilized in NJPW as early as 2003, and as recently as 2008.
Some might be frustrated that Ospreay’s send-off isn’t a big singles match against someone. But, I actually like this change of pace. We have seen countless classics from him and we’ll likely continue to see them in AEW. Instead of just another singles match, why not have his final NJPW bout be something that is a rarity — something the promotion hasn’t witnessed in more than a decade? I like the sound of that.
All-Star Main Event Sets Up Numerous Potential Angles
A pair of potential future matchups were teased as part of an exciting main event on Friday.
Undoubtedly the highlight of the 2024 New Year Dash was the surprise team that competed against TMDK in the final bout of the night. In what could best be described as an all-star lineup, Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Kazuchika Okada, and Tomohiro Ishii teamed up. On a card that doesn’t focus too much on match quality, this was the most fun match to watch.
The makeshift team ended up not having success. In an upset result, TMDK scored a pinfall victory. This allowed the faction to try for some future matchups afterward.
Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls, and Kosei Fujita demanded a shot at the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championships, as they beat two-thirds of the titleholders in Okada and Ishii (the third champ being Hiroshi Tanahashi).
Zack Sabre Jr. also called for a rematch against Danielson, whom he lost to on an AEW pay-per-view card last year.
Both of these matchups are fun. It would be nice to see the NEVER champs face an in-house three-man team after having a pair of their 2023 wins come against groups from AEW and IMPACT Wrestling. I also like Fujita, the Young Lion who is in TMDK, being included in a title angle.
There’s not much to say about Sabre Jr. and Danielson potentially facing off. That’s a great matchup that I’d take any day of the week.
High Hopes
NJPW announced that they will return to the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois, USA for “Windy City Riot” on April 12th. For those who are unaware, that’s a pretty large venue. For example: When AEW ran an event at the venue in June of last year, they had a set-up that allowed for 5,500 tickets.
When NJPW held Windy City Riot last year, they moved just over 2,000 tickets, which the venue capacity limiting them from selling more. That’s a really strong number, but they’re going to need much more to pull off a solid gate at the Wintrust Arena. I don’t think we want a situation like NJPW’s 2019 G1 card at the American Airlines Arena in Texas, where they did an impressive number but still had a fair amount of empty seats shown on the broadcast.
This is an event where they need to stack the card. We need a lot of the top stars, plus some who aren’t usually in NJPW (this means we’ll need Will Ospreay back, plus some others from AEW).
Also, this event will need better production quality. A lot of NJPW U.S. events have had poor production with an obviously low budget, but this has almost been excused by the fact that most events are held in small one-to-two thousand-person venues. When you’re in a huge, professional, major league sports venue, you need to look like the real deal. Here’s hoping they will take the steps to provide that image.
Filing These Under: ‘Whatever’
A few parts of New Year Dash were less than interesting.
First, it looks like EVIL and Tama Tonga will be the next program for the NEVER Openweight Championship. After a massive 12-man tag team match, EVIL cut off the ponytail that Tonga had. Since Tonga recently said that he will only compete in Japan for the next month before departing, it would stand to reason that EVIL will be taking the belt off him whenever they fight in the coming weeks.
That’s fine, I guess. My New Year’s Resolution for NJPW was that they keep House of Torture out of major title angles. This does that, at least. But it’s hard to be thrilled about an EVIL match under any circumstance.
El Phantasmo and Hikuleo were attacked at the event by Chase Owens, who announced that he and KENTA would challenge for the tag titles next. First: Where was KENTA? Owens made the flight to Japan for a run-in, but KENTA couldn’t find his way here? But also: This is not an interesting matchup. As much as I enjoy Phantasmo and Hikuleo, I can’t muster up any interest in Owens and KENTA challenging for the belts.
However, there was one cool part of Phantasmo and Hikuleo’s night: They faced Young Lions Oskar Leube and Yuto Nakashima, who had their send-off match before going on an excursion. I’m very interested to see how those two will do. Leube has an interesting tall but speedy build, which almost mirrors that of Hikuleo.
Earlier in the night, it was also announced that former UFC fighter and WWE wrestler Matt Riddle will soon face NJPW World Television Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Whether or not you like Riddle, it’s worth acknowledging that he comes into NJPW with some baggage. In 2020, he was accused of sexual assault by a fellow wrestler. This wrestler filed a lawsuit, which they dropped in 2021. While some will consider this as a reason to not consider him problematic, many will also weigh the fact that it is historically difficult to prove sexual assault in the U.S. legal system, whether it be in civil or criminal lawsuits. Also in 2022, many other women came forward with allegations of abuse from Riddle.
The reaction online that I have seen (which, it’s worth noting can only represent a fraction of the wrestling community) has been negative. Riddle is clearly a divisive figure and bringing him into a promotion is problematic and uncomfortable for many. When there’s so much negativity surrounding a talent — and for fair reason — it’s questionable whether they’re worth bringing in.
NJPW New Year Dash!! 2024 Results
Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Ryusuke Taguchi (NJPW World Television Championship) (5:40)
YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto def. Kaito Kiyomiya and Ryohei Oiwa (7:39)
El Phantasmo & Hikuleo def. Oskar Leube & Yuto Nakashima (8:06)
Shota Umino, El Desperado, Master Wato, Tomoaki Honma, Togi Makabe & Tama Tonga def. Dick Togo, SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & EVIL (9:02)
Francesco Akira, TJP, HENARE, Jeff Cobb & Will Ospreay vs. David Finlay, Alex Coughlin, Gabe Kidd, Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney (No Contest) (7:32)
TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura, Taichi & SANADA def. BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito (8:47)Taiji Ishimori def. YOH, Toru Yano & Great-O-Khan (King of Pro Wrestling 2024 Championship Match) (Four Way Last Pinfall Wins Match) (10:00)
Zack Sabre Jr., Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste & Kosei Fujita def. Kazuchika Okada, Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley & Tomohiro Ishii (13:50)
Sunday Notebook
Here’s the full lineup for NJPW’s Battle In The Valley card, which will take place next weekend:
Matt Vandagriff vs. Goldy
Viva Van vs. Stephanie Vaquer
Jacob Fatu, Fred Rosser & Shota Umino vs. Tom Lawlor, Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs
Mascara Dorada and Volador Jr. vs. Rocky Romero and Soberano Jr.
TJP vs. David Finlay
Hikuleo & El Phantasmo vs. Clark Connors & Alex Coughlin (NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championships)
Giulia vs. Trish Adora (NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship)
Matt Riddle and Mystery Teammate vs. Zack Sabre Jr. and Bad Dude Tito
Eddie Kingston vs. Gabe Kidd (Continental Crown Championship)
Shingo Takagi vs. Jon Moxley
Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay
NJPW released a schedule of their major events in 2024. What I found the most interesting here was a date in Taipei, Taiwan for April. I found this worth mentioning especially since NJPW recently formed an alliance with promotions in Taiwan, China, Thailand, and Singapore. I’m curious to know what collaborations they will have in Asia outside of Japan in the future.
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