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NJPW The New Beginning in Sapporo Cards Announced For Feb. 4 & 5

NJPW Logo Over JONAH, New Japan

NJPW’s first major post-Wrestle Kingdom 17 show has been revealed.

Although Wrestle Kingdom is NJPW’s first show of the calendar year, it’s not considered the first show of the company’s creative or business year. Instead, the January 4 Dome Show serves as the conclusion of the previous year’s storylines.

Each year’s new stories begin the following night at New Year’s Dash and so in a way, The New Beginning is, in fact, the first big show of NJPW’s 2023.

The New Beginning takes places over two nights, February 4th and 5th from the same venue, Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kitayell in Hokkaido, Japan.

The matches for each night’s shows are as follows:

Night One, February 4th:

  • Shota Umino vs. Tetsuya Naito
  • Taichi vs. Will Ospreay
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships Match: Francesco Akira & TJP (c) vs. DOUKI & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
  • CHAOS (YOH, Rysuke Taguchi, Toru Yano & Kazuchika Okada) vs. LiJ (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi, & SANADA)
  • Master Wato, Hikuleo, Tama Tonga, & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo, KENTA, & Jay White)
  • CHAOS (Yuto Nakashima, YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii, & Hirooki Goto) vs. TMDK (Kosei Fujita, Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste, & Zack Sabre Jr.)
  • Ryohei Oiwa, Ren Narita, El Desperado, & Minoru Suzuki vs. House of Torture (Dick Togo, SHO, Yujiro Takahashi, & EVIL)
  • Oskar Leube vs. Great-O-Khan

Night Two, February 5th:

  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. YOH
  • NJPW World TV Championship Match: Zack Sabre Jr (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii
  • IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships: Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) (c) vs. TMDK (Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls)
  • Shota Umino, Rysuke Taguchi, Toru Yano & Kazuchika Okada vs. BUSHI, SANADA, Tetsuya Naito, & Shingo Takagi
  • Jado, Hikuleo, Tama Tonga vs. Jay White, Gedo, & El Phantasmo
  • Master Wato & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Taiji Ishimori & KENTA
  • Yuto Nakashima, Ren Narita, El Desperado, & Minoru Suzuki vs. Dick Togo, SHO, Yujiro Takahashi, & EVIL
  • United Empire (Franceso Akira, Will Ospreay, TJP, & Great-O-Khan) vs. TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Taichi, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru